This July, Luke Evans was vacationing on Mykonos with his partner, Fran Tomas. Picturesque scenes filled their social media accounts, showing boat rides, windmills, and a visit to the gay bar JackieO’, where they enjoyed drinks and a drag performance.
“The place is very special,” Evans says via phone from the gay-friendly Greek destination. “The old town is so pretty and very, very unique. And the food is great. I’ve only been here twice — this is the second time in, I think, about 10 years. So lots has changed.”
Evans was soaking in the sights while he could. In just a few days after this interview, he was set to begin filming his next project, Prime Video’s Criminal, an adaptation of the popular graphic novel series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. In the TV show, formatted as an interwoven series of crime stories, Evans will portray a lead character, Tracy Lawless, a former outlaw who becomes (almost) reformed after years in the military. He stars opposite Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), who will play Mallory, an armed robber.
“It’s gonna be a very intense journey,” Evans predicts. “But I love the role, and I love the direction that they’re taking it in. And I think the fans will be very happy with what we’re gonna deliver…. It’s always cool bringing, like, a fictional character that people know to life. You feel a sense of responsibility to do a good job.” He was also looking forward to working with Clarke, whom he had not yet met. The cast also includes Charlie Hunnam and Richard Jenkins.
LORO PIANA Cardigan; BDXY STUDIO Vest and Shorts; THE LONDON SOCK COMPANY SocksJvdas Berra
Booking a lead in a major Amazon project — particularly amid the relative drought of productions following last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes — would be a triumph for any actor. That Evans is an out leading man (still a rarity in 2024) makes his casting and standing in Hollywood extraordinary.
And it’s far from the only project on Evans’s plate. His film Weekend in Taipei is set to debut in theaters later this year. In the action movie directed by George Huang, he portrays an über-dedicated DEA agent who reignites a love affair with a woman on the other side of the law (played by Gwei Lun-Mei).
Weekend in Taipei has “some of the best action sequences I’ve ever seen in film,” Evans praises. “It has a romantic side to it, and it also is quite funny. I loved shooting it…. Usually, I struggle watching my own films. I’m very critical, and for the first time in 16 years, I watched the film and literally, absolutely loved it. It just ticks all the boxes.”
It’s been quite a prolific 16 years for the 45-year-old Welsh actor, who at the time of his interview had recently wrapped his 45th production, by his count. But the work never gets old, and he enjoys the routine of a set. “It’s where I’m most calm because I get to focus on one thing completely. Everything else shuts off, and I can just do my job,” he attests.
Evans began his entertainment career as a stage actor in West End productions like Rent and Avenue Q. His breakout film role was playing Apollo in 2010’s Clash of the Titans, which burst open the doors to parts in major franchises like The Hobbit and Fast & Furious, as well as Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, in which he gave life to Gaston. (A planned Disney+ prequel starring Evans and Josh Gad as LeFou is “sadly…not on the table” right now, he says.) Evans also portrayed the vampiric lead in Dracula Untold, was featured in Hulu’s Nicole Kidman starrer Nine Perfect Strangers, and this past year alone, he has appeared in two gay films: Dan Levy’s Good Grief and Our Son with Billy Porter.
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That Evans can stay so booked and busy in showbiz may come as a surprise to some — including Evans. The actor has been out nearly his entire career, discussing his sexuality as early as 2002 in an interview with Out’s sister magazine, The Advocate. Then 23, he was costarring in Boy George’s West End musical, Taboo.
“People come up to me in pubs, gay pubs mind you, and can’t believe that I’m gay,” he told interviewer Paris Barclay at the time. But that young actor, due to the queer play he was in at the time, had prepared himself for that moment. “I knew I was going to have to do interviews with gay magazines; I knew this was going to happen,” he said in the article. “So I thought, Well, I’m going to have to be open. It’s who I am. And if people don’t like it, then I don’t want their jobs.”
The jobs came — though Evans did shy away from discussing his private life for a period. Threading the thinnest of needles, Evans became a queer outlier in Tinseltown, landing roles even in traditionally hetero-heavy genres. He still has mixed feelings (and a bit of imposter syndrome) about his success.
“I was the only one doing these big action movies and being gay. I was on my own for a long time. And that was a strange place to be,” he recalls. “I still am shocked that I’m still working. I think it’s the working-class, be-grateful-for-everything-you-get kind of attitude. So that when you have success, you sort of think, Really? How is it coming to me? Why not the other guy?”
“I struggle with it. I’m not like the most comfortable with my success and my fame. I handle it OK. But you know, it’s not easy,” he adds. “It’s unusual…. All my friends are not in the business. So I’m surrounded by people who have normal lives: nine-to-fives, kids, they stay in one house, they don’t travel so much. And I live a very different life. But I think what’s kept me [grounded]…is my friends and my family. They’re very important to me. And my partner, he keeps me grounded and keeps me calm in this strange world that I live in. But I’m very fortunate. I still, you know, every day pinch myself and think, Christ, how did that happen? And how did I do that?”
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So does he know how he did that? “I don’t think I do,” Evans admits, referencing the “unexpected” part of the title of his new memoir, Boy From the Valleys: My Unexpected Journey, which comes out this November. He calls it “that sliding door thing,” where successive choices he made to seize career opportunities and advice resulted in his path to success. His life journey has engendered a carpe diem philosophy. “When you’re young, you think opportunities come all the time, but they don’t, they really don’t,” he reflects. “And as you get older, they become even less. So, my advice is [to] be aware when opportunities come to you, and don’t take them for granted.”
Evans calls writing his memoir, which traces his beginnings in a South Wales village, where he was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, to the heights of Hollywood, “a very strange process,” full of highs and lows. “There was some very, very difficult moments… [that] brought a lot of painful memories. A lot of memories I’d forgotten about that made me laugh. There [were] lots of tears during the nine months it took to write the book…. [And] it was a little therapeutic, in a way, because I got to understand myself at 45 because of who I was when I was a young kid and a teenager.”
After this introspection, what would he tell his younger self if he could go back in time? “Don’t give up…never think you’ve come to the end of the road — because you haven’t.”
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Coming up as an actor, Evans had precious few out possibility models who could have proffered this advice. He also admits he doesn’t have many friends in the entertainment industry, which constantly “drags you to different corners of the earth,” making it hard to form lasting relationships.
An exception is Ian McKellen, with whom he bonded while filming The Hobbit. “I would spend many weekends taking hikes with him in New Zealand. And we’d chat, and I’d listen to his story, and he’d listen to mine,” he says of the gay acting legend, famous for portraying the wise wizard Gandalf in the franchise. “I really valued that time I had with him because…[what an] incredible man, incredible career, incredible human being [who] did great things for our community, and still is doing great things for our community. So it was wonderful to be around people like him.”
Another of Evans’s famous gay friends is Russell Tovey (Looking, American Horror Story: NYC). “I’m very proud of him and what he’s achieved,” Evans says. “And he’s also a really clever person, and he’s very good with art.”
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Evans’s status as a queer outlier and barrier-breaker was cemented about a decade ago when he found himself on the short list of British actors in the running for the next James Bond. Being considered to play the ultimate ladies’ man was a major moment for Evans. “I was like, Wow, this is like crazy that I’m on this list,” he reflects, adding, “I took stock that day and I thought…people could see me as that role even being a gay man, which I thought was great, and it means that we are progressing.”
While some of that Bond buzz has since transferred to younger actors, like the out Fellow Travelers star Jonathan Bailey, “I wouldn’t turn it down” if it were offered today, Evans says. “I’ve still got some years left in me to do stunts and shoot a gun and wear a tuxedo. I do look quite good in a tuxedo, even if I do say it myself.”
Evans also spoke glowingly of his partner, Tomas, an architect and project manager from Madrid whom he met about three years ago. For that first year, however, Evans traveled a lot — he was filming in Colombia while Tomas lived in Spain — and he feared acting would put his chance at love in jeopardy. “I thought, Oh, here we go, another victim of my career, my new relationship…and somehow, we managed to make it work.”
“He’s a great human being,” Evans sings of Tomas. “He’s the best part of me for sure. He’s kind, calm. He’s happy. He’s positive. He’s a hard worker. He literally makes me a better person. And he has to put up with my shit, which, I can’t imagine what that would be like.”
“We’re best friends. We travel together. We work together, we work on the [BDXY fashion] brand together,” he continues. “And we’re building a life together. We’re happy and I’m very grateful that I’ve met that person.”
LUKE EVANS and FRAN TOMAS in BDXY STUDIO SwimwearVALERO RIOJA/BDXY STUDIO
That brand, BDXY, is a portmanteau of the words “bold” and “sexy,” which Evans wanted to inspire with the clothing. He personally funded the company and launched it earlier this year with Tomas and his longtime stylist, Christopher Brown. Tomas paused his work as an architect to run the business full-time.
The young apparel and lifestyle brand is starting with basics: underwear, T-shirts, vests, shorts, swimwear, and hats. There are also two candle scents, Alfama and Salinas, inspired by Evans’s love for Lisbon and Ibiza. “The whole collection was based on doing something really personal to us, things that we would wear,” says Evans, noting that the three founders are different sizes, heights, and body types. Inclusivity is key. “We want it to fit all kinds of men.”
Today, in a variety of fields, Evans can be the out public figure that he never saw growing up, pursuing his dreams and now living openly and proudly with the man he loves. The gay visibility he brings to the world is no small thing to him.
“I take it as a real honor and a responsibility to be who I am in the public and to send out a message of hope and inspiration,” he says. “You can be whatever you want, and it doesn’t come easy. But nothing about who you are in your heart and your soul should have any effect on where you wanna go and who you want to be.”
This cover story is part of the Out September/October issue, which hits newsstands on August 28. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting August 13.
Jvdas Berra
talent: LUKE EVANS @thereallukeevans
photographer: JVDAS BERRA @jvdasberra
stylist: CHRISTOPHER BROWN @chrisbrownstylist at COLLECTIVE TALENTS @collectivetalentsinc
grooming: SALLY O’NEILL @sallyoneill1 at CAREN @carenagency using ARMANI BEAUTY
production: DANSON PRODUCTIONS @dansonproductions
photo assistant: PATRICIA BENITEZ
stylist assistant: INCA BAYLEY @incabayley