MANILA, Philippines - Truly a woman’s captain, Chris Evans keeps mum about his number on women when asked in line with his upcoming sexy romcom What’s Your Number? opposite Anna Faris.
Chris plays Colin who willingly helps Ally Darling (Faris) in her quest to track past lovers who might happen to be her ideal one. Fun and sexy, Ally dismisses Colin as a potential lover because she sees him as a womanizing lothario rather than marriage material.
The movie opens up a lot of questions on adult relationships in the most absurd way possible such as: Will a relatively large number of romantic partners affect your chances of finding true love? And how many is too many? Is that number different from men and women?
Chris shares his thoughts in the following Q&A:
What do you think the film has to say about sex?
“I think the film is a ‘sexually forward’ film willing to tackle areas that traditional romantic comedies have not explored before. That’s what I love about great movies; they are always going to take chances and risks, and that’s what this film does. The more you can emulate life the better it’s going to be, and this movie really does a good job of taking the funniest parts of adult life and mirroring those back to the audience.”
How do you find humanity and warmth in a character like Colin who is a bit of a rogue and a ladies man?
“That’s what’s great about him. Even though he starts out as a womanizer, at the end of the day I think he’s a good man who has a good heart. He’s at a stage in his life where he’s not looking for commitment, but Anna’s character brings out in him. I think everybody’s looking for a soul mate, for love and a lifelong companion. I don’t care what they say, that’s what people want.”
Do you prefer being a single man or do you want to settle down yourself?
“Oh yes, I want to settle down eventually. These days everyone is liberated. You can do whatever you want to and to some degree that idea is socially acceptable. My philosophy in life is rooted in having no judgments one way or another about how other people choose to live their lives. Be a good person. Whatever you want to do is fine, whether you want to go out and have sex with a thousand women, or whether you want to marry at 18 and pop out nine babies; just be a good person.”
What has it been like to work with Anna?
“She’s just great. When I signed on to do this film I was ecstatic, because I cannot think of another actress who is funnier than Anna is. She’s hilarious both on and off camera. She’s also very smart, a really clever girl. Anna is always one step ahead and she really does her homework when it comes to acting.”
What do you think men can learn from watching women talk about sex and relationships, which they tend to do so frankly and without inhibition?
“I think men and women really aren’t too dissimilar at the end of the day, at least the women that I know. When you get them alone and talk with them, you suddenly think ‘Man, you guys talk about the same stuff we do. This is kind of crazy.’ Any guy that who thinks that doesn’t happen needs to wake up because it sure does. In fact, sometimes women are worse! Guys will make sexual comments in broad strokes, but they don’t go into detail. Girls will give go into extraordinary detail. They really break it down.”
What’s your number? (if you want to share that information!)
“I’m not telling my number! What’s too high and what’s too low? If you’re 18 and you’ve had sex with 30 people that might be a bit high, but if you’re 40 and you’ve had sex with 30 people maybe that’s okay? It really depends on what you’re looking for. Maybe it’s not wrong to have sex with 200 women, who knows? By the way, that is not even close to my number. But I don’t judge; it doesn’t matter to me at all. I think that this movie is trying to express the idea that the preoccupation with people’s numbers is the very thing we need to start letting go of, because it’s an unnecessary judgment.”
Is there a broader message that you deliver in the film about sex and romance?
“I think it says that whenever you do want to stop that part of your life (having different partners) and move on to try to find the person you’re meant to be with, you can do just that. The number of people you’ve slept with in your past should have no bearing on whether or not you’re able to find that one special person. I think there’s an idea people have that if you’ve had sex with too many people, you’re somehow soured and that number will eventually ruin you for true love. That shouldn’t be the case and that’s the message we’re trying to send in our movie: That whenever you’re ready to take the next step, whether you’ve had sex with two or 20, or 200, it shouldn’t matter.”
What’s Your Number? opens Oct. 5 in theaters nationwide.