Last week, NY Magazine published a lengthy interview with Jenny Slate. She’s promoting her new film, Gifted, the same film where she met (and likely fell in love with) Chris Evans. In the NY Mag piece, Slate basically spent the entire time talking about Chris and analyzing their relationship and breakup. Her whole shtick is vulnerable/quirky girl, so she was on-brand, except that the interview just made her seem like she was sort of obsessed with him. I wondered if Chris would even get any questions about Slate during his promotional work, and in most of the interviews I’ve read so far, no, he wasn’t even getting any questions about Slate. But People Magazine went there and he did go on the record about Slate.

Although their romantic relationship ended earlier this year, the Gifted costars have remained friends and share genuine respect and admiration for one other.

“She’s my favorite human,” Evans tells PEOPLE of Slate. “She’s the best. I’ve never ever ever met someone in my life who has a mastery of the English language the way she does. She’ll give you one sentence and there’s no fat to it. You’re like, ‘You just chose such an unbelievable collection of words that beautifully articulate what you say.’ It’s like an art form talking with her, because the visuals associated with her expression are just so colorful. She’s so vulnerable, so honest, so interested in other people more than herself, she’s incredibly compassionate, there’s just nothing to not love about her.”

Evans has always been very careful and private about certain details he shares about his personal life, but he understands the public’s interest.

“I chose to be an actor, you can’t be an actor and then be like, “I’m pissed people want to know about me!’ ” he says. “To some degree I welcome it, because I’ve always found that for the most part, in interviews, being anything less than candid feels wrong. To some degree it feels right to share certain things. So, I’m not too sour if all the sudden it feels like there’s a large influx in curiosity.” He adds: “It’s not a bad thing. And you know what, if the things you’re doing and the things you’re surrounding yourself with are quality people and they are beautiful experiences, there’s no shame in sharing.”

[From People]

While I’ve never been on the Chris Evans Bandwagon, I think this was a nice and classy response to those questions. He obviously still has a great deal of affection for her as a person, and my guess is that he broke up with her but they ended it on good terms. I also like what he says about people’s natural curiosity about celebrities – so many celebs play the “I will never discuss my personal life, how dare you ask me!” card.

Photos courtesy of WENN.