Knives Out star Daniel Craig still doesn't understand why his co-star Chris Evans' sweater became an iconic fashion moment for audiences across the world. The whodunit film, which was directed by Rian Johnson and premiered in theaters in late 2019, featured Craig as the private detective Benoit Blanc and Evans as Hugh Ransom Drysdale, the grandson of a famous crime novelist whose death fuels the central mystery of the film. In one scene where Ransom is meeting with his grandfather's nurse Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), he is depicted wearing a chunky cable knit sweater that captured the imaginations of many viewers and led to a cavalcade of memes appreciating the costume piece.
BBC Radio 1 interviewed Craig ahead of the release of the sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on Netflix. When reflecting on the original film, he revealed that he still doesn't understand why the sweater took off the way it did. He expressed his perplexion at the reaction it got, saying that fans acted like Evans was "naked from the sort of waist down." Read his full quote below:
It’s the bit that goes over my head. I don’t understand. It’s like, so Chris Evans is wearing a jumper. It’s like he’s naked or at least naked from the sort of waist down, wearing a jumper. I’m like, "He’s just wearing a jumper."
News in is like, "Chris Evans wears jumper" [But] sure, it’s a living. He does it very well. He wears it very beautifully.
Is the Knives Out Sweater Chris Evans' Most Iconic Costume?
While some may agree with Craig's assessment of the sweater itself, there is no denying that it has captured the public consciousness. Over the years, the sweater has been photoshopped onto many different characters including Baby Yoda, Buzz Lightyear (the character Evans voiced in Pixar's Toy Story spinoff Lightyear), and even the cast of Glass Onion. However, it is not the only Chris Evans movie moment that has made its way around the internet over the years.
Predictably, some of the most popular GIFs of the actor feature him wearing not much at all. This includes animated images of scenes including a moment where he retrieves the newspaper naked and only covering himself with a washcloth in the 2011 rom-com What's Your Number? or the scene where a shirtless Steve Rogers emerges from the machine for the first time after receiving super soldier serum in Captain America: The First Avenger. One other GIF that somewhat splits the difference between being a costume and being nudity is from the parody film Not Another Teen Movie, which sees him wearing nothing but whipped cream in a reference to Varsity Blues.
Among the flurry of memes, there are a few other Evans costumes that have caught the attention of the Internet. Various Captain America uniforms have had their moment in the sun (especially when it comes to comparing how the look has changed over the years), as has his leather jacket bad boy movie star look from Scott Pilgrim vs the World. However, despite the preponderance of options, the Knives Out sweater has proven to be the perennial favorite since it initially debuted three years ago.
Source: BBC Radio 1