The four days that changed everything for Luke Evans: “I couldn’t believe what was happening”
Stardom can be a whirlwind experience, as being at the centre of massive Hollywood films leads to press cycles, world premieres, and subsequent casting sessions, so while Luke Evans may have started out as a regular of the British theatre, he’s evolved now into one of the biggest action movie stars of the era.
Although it can be impossible to anticipate who might be the next major movie star, the crowning of a generational talent tends to happen rather quickly, which is what Evans faced. It was after gaining notice for his breakthrough work in several West End productions that he landed roles in three films that shaped his career.
“I was lucky enough to get a role in Clash of the Titans and Robin Hood and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll,” he said, “I got them all in four days of each other, and I couldn’t believe what was happening”.
Clash of the Titans may not have been favourably remembered by everyone involved in it, but there was a heavy degree of anticipation for the remake of the 1981 classic mythology film. While Liam Neeson’s performance as Zeus was the basis of the film’s marketing campaign, it was Evans who ended up stealing every scene he had as Apollo, the Greek god of healing and poetry.
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll offered a different type of fantasy, as it examined the life of the iconic, controversial new wave musician Ian Dury, played by Andy Serkis in one of his few performances that wasn’t using motion capture. It may have been a star vehicle for him, who received a Bafta nomination for ‘Best Actor’, but Evans’ involvement in such a significant British film certainly did wonders for his career.
Robin Hood was probably the most significant of the actor’s three-film run, and not just because it was based on one of the most legendary folk heroes of all time. The film was directed by the great Ridley Scott and told a far more realistic version of the story of the English outlaw by incorporating real history, and Evans, best known for his inherent charisma, got to go dark by playing one of the film’s villains.
That level of successive hits is something that most actors might only hope to have once within their entire careers, but Evans’ success didn’t stop there, as within the next few years, he starred as Aramis in The Three Musketeers, became Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit trilogy, took on the role of the titular vampire in Dracula: Untold, and joined The Fast and the Furious franchise as the villainous Owen Shaw. To his credit, he seems to have remained humble about the experience.
“The roles have gotten bigger, and now I’m doing press on movies, which is even stranger,” he said, “Time goes so fast, and you can do so many films. In theatre, you sometimes can only do one or two jobs a year because they’re long periods. In film, you can shoot so many. It’s quite interesting.”
Although Evans is a valued screen presence who improves nearly every film that he’s in, it seems as if his heart still lies in the theatre, having recently earned what could become his most defining role, when he was cast as Dr Frank-N-Furter in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a play that is of deep significance to both genre fans and the LGBTQ+ community.
