Highlights
- Luke Evans told The Telegraph he knows several Hollywood actors who have chosen not to come out publicly.
- The Welsh star said the industry is insular and that no one knows what a closeted actor has gone through.
- Evans, who spent years in straight macho roles, also said he was on the list for James Bond for a decade.
Luke Evans says he knows several Hollywood actors who have chosen to stay in the closet, and he isn’t judging any of them.
The Welsh star, who came out publicly in 2002, opened up to The Telegraph about his years as a rare out leading man in studio films. “It wasn’t easy being the only one who was out for quite a long time,” he said.
“And I know of several actors in Hollywood,” he added, referring to peers who chose not to be out.
He was careful not to speak for them. Still, he admitted, “Yes, it saddens me” that more openly gay actors aren’t working at that level.
His explanation was blunt. “It’s a very insular industry.”
Evans pushed back on the idea that anyone owes the public a coming-out story. “But you never know what a person has gone through,” he said.
“You don’t know what their family feels,” he continued, adding that outsiders also can’t know how hard those actors fought to build a career in the first place.
Then he summed up the reality of being out in that world in four words. “You’re on your own.”
He speaks from experience. Raised a Jehovah’s Witness, Evans has said he struggled to accept his sexuality and left both his home and his religion at 16 to pursue acting. He has described being bullied in school and needing to “find my voice and be a happy, gay teenager.”
The interview also touched on the harsh response he received after coming out. In 2020, he told Attitude that speculation that he went back into the closet to help his film career was not true.
His résumé is built largely on straight roles, including Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit trilogy, Gaston in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, and the Fast & Furious franchise.
“I’ve played mostly straight macho roles my whole career, and I’ve loved it,” Evans told The Telegraph.
He rejects the idea that gay actors should be limited to gay parts. “If gay people only played gay characters, then I’d have had no career,” Evans said.
But he acknowledged the imbalance on the other side. He said there are “not enough opportunities for gay actors to play gay characters”, and the same goes for trans actors in trans roles.
Evans also rejected the assumption that gay people should hold “woke” political views, saying sexuality does not determine someone’s broader beliefs.
Then there’s 007. Evans said he was “on the list for Bond for a good decade,” and took that as a sign a gay actor could be cast in the role. He says he’s now too old for it himself.
Next up is ITV’s The Party, a five-part drama based on Elizabeth Day‘s novel, with Evans playing journalist Martin Gilmour opposite Tom Cullen as wealthy politician Ben Fitzmaurice.
