Chris Evans has had a long, hard couple of days. The Captain America star aroused much interest when, while sharing his screen during an Instagram story, followers spotted a nude pic on his camera roll. His first reaction was, quite naturally, embarrassment. After all, whether you’re a mere member of the public or a huge throbbing celebrity, nobody wants the entire world judging their body without their explicit permission.
Evans has tried to deal with the situation with good humor and his response has been received well, with his first tweet since the incident – saying: “Now that I have your attention… VOTE Nov 3rd” – receiving 1.1 million likes. He also addressed the gaff in a recent interview, explaining:
“Look, it was a very interesting weekend, full of lessons learned. You know, things happen. It’s embarrassing but you gotta roll with the punches. I will say, I have some pretty fantastic fans who really came to my support. That was really, really nice.”
A decent measure of how well-regarded Evans is that his legion of fans quickly gathered to try to stop the spread of the image. Twitter was brigaded with hashtags intended to prevent curious users from finding it, meaning the site was temporarily populated by gifs from Evans’ appearances across the MCU.
Personally, I think the actor dealt with this with as much dignity as is possible after you accidentally expose yourself to millions of people. Were he still the MCU’s Captain America, he may have faced an awkward meeting with Disney and Marvel Studios execs, but I doubt he’s going to suffer any long-term career harm.
In fact, the way the fan community leapt to Chris Evans‘ defence and hid his shame is obviously a big boost to him, so that’s a silver lining. But this should be a cautionary tale to other celebrities live-streaming their phone screens. Make sure that camera roll is clean before you stream.