Luke Evans opens up about his first-ever gay crush: ‘I just felt something I’d never felt before’
Luke Evans has revealed his first gay crush and what he’d say to his former bullies now. (Lia Toby/Getty Images)
The Hobbit star Luke Evans has revealed who his first gay crush was, and what he’d say to his former bullies now.
Luke Evans has been open about the homophobic bullying he suffered at school, which he previously said left him feeling “dirty” and “like [he] had a disease”.
Speaking to PinkNews, the Beauty and the Beast star also shared that being an out gay star in Hollywood action films left him feeling alone.
During a chat with reality TV star Jamie Laing on his podcast Great Company, the 45-year-old opened up further about his past.
He recalled bullies calling him a “shirt lifter” among other cruel insults, but he added that he “knew there was more” beyond school, which kept him going.
When asked by Laing if he would forgive his bullies, he replied, “Yes, I guess I forgive them,” but added, “I’d love for them to ask for it though. On their knees, ‘Please, please forgive me.’”
“The ultimate revenge: success,” Laing added.
“I felt something I had never felt before”
On his first gay crush, he revealed that he fancied his rugby teacher when he was around nine or ten. “I remember thinking, ‘Holy – what is this?‘”
“I just felt something I’d never felt before,” he said of the experience, adding that his teacher was “good-looking,” had “big muscles,” and drove “a sports car with my name, Luke, written on the seatbelts.”
In his memoir Boy from the Valleys: An Unexpected Journey, Evans wrote: “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 – Luke Evans was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and 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,” he continued.
“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.”
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
How did this story make you feel?
