Chris Evans called up Ana de Armas to ask her to star in Ghosted after Scarlett Johansson had to drop out.

In the Apple TV+ action comedy, the Captain America actor plays a romantically needy farmer who is ghosted by de Armas’ secret agent character Sadie after a first date. When he decides to track her down, he gets caught up in a life-threatening plot.

According to Dexter Fletcher, Evans was already attached to the project when he joined as the director and he suggested bringing in his Avengers co-star to play Sadie.

“He was like, ‘Look, Scarlett is a great friend. I’m just gonna ask Scarlett,'” Fletcher recalled. “And obviously, I had no objections to that pairing, and for a while there, it seemed really positive and very good. There was something else we were juggling against, but it looked like we could do it. (Scarlett) was engaged, she was giving great notes on the script and the ideas were flowing during great meetings.”

However, Johansson later had to drop out due to scheduling issues, so Fletcher suggested turning to de Armas, who had worked with Evans on Knives Out and The Gray Man.

“I very quickly said to Chris, ‘What about Ana?’ And he went, ‘I know Ana.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I know you do!” he laughed. “So that became a very quick conversation, and using his friendship, Chris picked up the phone. And then she said, ‘Well, let me talk to Dexter and read the script.’ And then she spoke to me about it, and I pitched her what I was thinking.”

He added, “So, unfortunately, (Scarlett) only had that window of availability, and that was it… It was really just good fortune that Ana had a window of opportunity, and they’re such great friends.”

Ghosted is streaming now via Apple TV+.

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