Russo brothers reveal how Chris Evans pushed to play The Gray Man villain

The Russo brothers say Chris Evans pushed to play the villain in 'The Gray Man'.

Anthony and Joe Russo have reunited with the 'Captain America' star for the big-budget Netflix movie and the filmmakers revealed how Chris wanted to try something different by playing the unhinged Lloyd Hanson – who is determined to kill Ryan Gosling's mercenary Sierra Six.

Joe Russo told Den of Geek: "We didn't have to sell Chris on the role; Chris sold us, in a way.

"We were talking to him as we were wrapping up 'Infinity War' and then 'Avengers: Endgame' about what's next for him or where he wanted to go in his career, and he said, 'You know what? I'm comfortable enough in my life and the work I've done that I'm just interested in taking risks moving forward, and I just want to play challenging characters.'

"So it seemed obvious to us that the right move here would be to offer Chris the sociopath and not the hero."

Joe thinks that Ryan Gosling is the perfect man to play the hero in the upcoming movie and thinks the role complements his acting skills perfectly.

The 50-year-old director said: "I would argue this role uses everything that Ryan is incredible at. It combines his great physical control; his really wonderful, quirky sense of humour; how he is smouldering and intense onscreen and can communicate a lot while doing very little.

"Remember, Ryan was a dancer when he was younger. Playing an action hero is different from any other form of acting because all that stunt work requires incredible body control and extreme discipline."

Anthony added: "We knew we needed somebody who knew how to disappear on some level. Gosling has such an interesting technique to him in that he has a minimalist style where he conveys a whole lot of emotion, thought and complexity, with a lot of subtlety."