But Evans, 37, loves it here. He grew up just a few miles away and even now, nearly a decade after picking up the shield of Captain America, looks every bit the local in a Red Sox ball cap, a red tartan flannel, and chukkas. It’s hard to reckon that just a couple of days before, this same guy was onstage at the Academy Awards, presenting with Jennifer Lopez in front of a TV audience of more than 29 million. His duds that night: a custom baby-blue velvet Ferragamo jacket that his stylist told The Hollywood Reporter was inspired by Prince Charming.

Evans ushers me inside, where the dishwasher is running and congressional hearings are playing on cable news, and Dodger, Evans’ rescue dog, is spinning around like a dervish, because maybe no one’s come over in a while. The scene is not quite what you expect when you’re visiting an actor who plays a Marvel superhero. It’s more like visiting a successful but reclusive novelist. Or your parents’ suburban home.

I ask about the Oscars and J. Lo, and Evans reveals his contemporaneous monologue: “She’s been a major crush of mine for so long,” he says. “I was just thinking, Don’t be annoying, don’t be annoying, shut up Chris, just shut up. Don’t be a dickhead. Don’t say anything, because you don’t know what to say.”

Not that you’d notice he was anything but cool at the Oscars. A Chris Evans moment went viral when, seated in the front row, he quickly leaped to the aid of actress Regina King when her dress became tangled as she approached the stage. Evans supported King as she straightened it out, then escorted her up a few stairs.