Luke Evans felt ‘alone’ as a gay actor in Hollywood

Actor Luke Evans has spoken about what it was like being an out gay star in Hollywood action films at the start of his career.

The Beauty and the Beast star spoke to PinkNews following the release of his memoir, Boy from the Valleys: An Unexpected Journey, in which he details “his humble beginnings in a quaint Welsh mining village to the dazzling lights of Hollywood” and life growing up as a gay Jehovah’s Witness.

“There [were] no other openly gay actors playing these action, macho, straight roles. I was sort of cutting a path which I didn’t really know how to navigate,” he said.

“We tried our best to keep the focus on the work. Straight actors, do they ever have to do this? No, they don’t.”

Evans, who got his big break in 2010’s Clash of the Titans, described the situation as “strange” because he had been living openly in London for more than a decade “with a boyfriend and life, and a home and a fish tank, just living a normal life” then “all of a sudden, it was like, I had to [come out] all over again”.

He went on to say: “I’d already done interviews when I was 21 about what it was like, I wasn’t gonna deny it, it was already there. I wondered how many times I had to do it, how many times did I have to keep saying it.

“There was no one my age doing what I was doing, it was just me. Now things have changed, people are much more comfortable with being openly gay in this industry. It’s great, things are changing.”

In his memoir, an extract of which was published in The Guardian, Evans also recounted facing homophobia in school, which made him feel “dirty” and “like [he] had a disease”.

The Our Son star added: “I was bullied for being gay before I even understood what it meant. The worst nickname was jovey bender because it combined two aspects of my identity that could never be reconciled: homosexuality is not accepted in the religion.

“It’s a terribly dark place to be as a child, knowing you’re somehow ‘wrong’, but with no idea why that is or how you can fix it.

“I hated school. Children can be horribly intolerant, evil little b**tards some of them. Anything slightly different about you and you’re a target, and I was different in almost every way possible.”

The Boy from the Valleys: An Unexpected Journey is available now.

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