Actor Chris Evans of The Avengers fame is richer than most. The handsome star is part of two major Marvel franchises–the aforementioned super-group series as well as Captain America.
He recently plunked down $3.52 million for a nearly 4,600 square foot estate in Hollywood Hills, according to the May 27 issue of US Weekly.
Evans will soon be seen in Snowpiercer, Hollywood’s latest film demonizing the rich. The movie is set in a future where the well-to-do live in a posh portion of a train circling our doomed planet while the poor are left to a bleak compartment.
Evans isn’t alone in picking projects that trash people with bank accounts just like theirs. Plenty of uber-rich stars are eager to do just the same. Consider In Time, the 2011 sci-fi film featuring Justin Timberlake where the affluent live indefinitely by paying for minutes of life, while the poor never get a chance to climb the social ladder.
Next month, Matt Damon (who recently put his Miami home up for sale for $20 million) and Jodie Foster (selling her longtime home for more than $6 million) bring wealth bashing to potentially new highs with Elysium, the latest “socially conscious” project from director Neill Blomkamp of District 9 fame. It’s plot essentially mirrors that of Snowpiercer, with a 99 percent type (Damon) trying to break into the world of the oppressive rich and famous (epitomized by Foster’s character).
The irony, of course, is that these actors all live in a country where social mobility attracts immigrants the world over, and the ability to rise up the social ladder remains a key part of the American dream. Plus, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened in recent years under President Barack Obama’s stewardship, the same leader the entertainment community did all it could to re-elect ignoring his economic policies.
So why would an Evans, Damon or Foster choose such projects? Does it come down to guilt, the need to spread the wealth on film while living in massive homes separated from their previous middle class lives?
No matter the psychology behind it, it’s hard not to predict more films like Snowpiercer are coming our way.