Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Luke Evans (Part Two)

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

We’re back with the brilliant Luke Evans in St James’s Park! And guess what... he’s still carrying Raymond!Luke tells us how he went from being a jobbing actor to a Hollywood movie star - and he tells us an extraordinary story about one of the ways he made money when he needed it… We chat about how it felt to have his sexuality under scrutiny again after he broke through to stardom and what happened after left his religion. And, of course, we chat about Beauty and The Beast. Luke also treated us to a couple of bars of Gaston… much to the surprise and delight of the general public in St James’s Park!You can get your copy of Luke’s brilliant book Boy From The Valleys here!Follow @TheRealLukeEvans on Instagram Keep up with all things Luke at lukeevansofficial.com Follow Emily: Instagram - @emilyrebeccadeanX - @divine_miss_emWalking The Dog is produced by Faye LawrenceMusic: Rich Jarman Artwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Really hope you enjoy part two of Walking the Dog with Luke Evans. Do go back and give Part 1 a listen if you haven't already and do read his wonderful new memoir, Boy from the Valley's. Thanks so much for listening to Walking the Dog and I'd also love it if you gave us a like and a follow so you don't miss an episode. Here's Luke and Ray Ray. You'd always presumably had this sense that you had a talent for performing

because I was so rooting for you in the school play, the musical, and you get cast, there's this hugely significant moment where you get cast as Captain Bond Track against the odds. Oh, yeah. And you... Yeah, that was a moment, let me tell you. And the school golden boy, I'm afraid, he ends up as... Rolf the Nazi.

Rothenazi. Jason Musgrave. Yeah, he was a handsome lad he was, and everybody loved him. On the children, that was so sweet. The teacher was like, all right, all right. The children were. I love you, Luke, don't they? Thank Disney for that.

I'm going to start using that as an expression. Thank Disney for that. Your career in sort of musical theatre and started, you had this incredible singing teacher in Wales, didn't you? Yes, Louise. Who it turned out was also teaching the young Charlotte Church. That's right. Yeah, I remember my first ever class with her.

I turned up a little early so I had to stand in the corridor. of her terraced house while she finished her last class before me and this voice came out of this room and I was like wow that's incredible thinking like this 16 year old girl or older was going to walk out and this nine-year-old in a school uniform with her hair in pig tails walked out and went hello I was like oh hello and anyway that was that ended up being Charlotte Church and her mother Maria Yeah, yeah. Who you went on to become sort of lifelong friends with. Yes.

Which is really lovely, because there must have been something quite lovely about both of you having that sense of, we know where we've been. Yeah. We know where we came from. Yeah. We've been through a lot. Different lives, very different stories, but we have been through it, yeah. I get the sense that similar to you, she always has struck me as someone who didn't want to leave her old life behind. No. She's staunchly protective of her family and her life.

Is that a Welsh thing? Yes, I think it probably is. I mean, Michael Sheen is very much like that. And who else? All right, me. Do you know what? I've noticed it walking around with you. Yeah. I know this sounds weird, but it's really lovely.

Just the joy that you are. inspire because British people are quite well-mannered. Do you know what you mean? They're very like, we haven't just seen him, well, let's pretend it. But their faces, it's like they've suddenly had some glowy filter on their faces when they see you. Isn't that

lovely that people look happy? I'm wondering whether it's less me, it's more Raymond. Let's be clear here. I'm carrying a furball of happiness. What about the double whammy of you

Well, that might be, that might be part of it. I mean, I've lost my hand in his fur. It's so long. You ended up. It was, you know, you did a, you were a jobbing actor for quite a long time. Until you were around 27. Yeah. And then suddenly, you did taboo, didn't you?

Taboo was when I was like 22. It was so incredible in your book. And again, such an insight into you that I couldn't actually believe this. you got a call from a friend. You're doing all these sort of odd jobs as actors do to sport themselves. And a friend says, do you know a hairdresser? This is a brilliant story. And what do you do, Luke?

Well, I was poor. I wasn't working at the time. And I was struggling to pay my rent. I was the knock-off food at the end of the night kind of person. I literally was surviving. My friend, Walt, he was the manager of the private members club and hotel. home house and I don't know why he called me

I don't know why he thought I might know a hairdresser and he said I have a client who's staying tonight and she's very high-powered big business woman and she needs her hair styled for this big ball she's going to her husband's getting an award tonight do you know anybody last minute I need to find one and I said

I can do that and he said okay look back to the no joke now and who do you know I went no I can do that I can style a hair I cut people's hair all the time and by the way I did

I used to cut my singing teacher's hair I used to cut my friends hair for five pounds in college just to make some money so he said Luke if you fuck this up I will never I will never forgive you I said trust me I can do this

so I got on the bus went up Oxford Street stopped at Clay's accessories picked up a couple of pins went to W.H. Smith picked up her the new Heat magazine, stopped in boots and bought all the miniatures, hairspray, comb, put them all in a plastic bag, turned up at her dress, at her room. She turned up and she just assumed

that I was who, she thought I was. And she was like, hello darling. I went, let's have a look at your dress. She got her this big ball round dress and it had no straps on the shoulders and I thought, okay I said we should put your hair up she was like great I was like thank God for that because all I all I could do is a French pleat so I literally there must have been like 400 pins in her head by the time I'd finished and three bottles of hair spray

and she was very happy with it she bought she ordered a bottle of champagne I wandered out of there with 90 quid in my pocket and she went to the ball Walt called me about four hours later she just got home I was thinking Oh God, oh God, he's calling me to say it's all falling down. She's come home crying, mascara running down her face.

And he went, she has walked in and her hair is exactly the same as when she left. I was like, there we go. I said, well, if there's any more people need their hair doing, just let me know. You know, some people have that yes and they call it, don't they? Yes, you know. And you're very, the fact that you just thought, I can do this. It's an interesting mix you are, isn't it? Survival technique.

Do you think so? Yeah. I was like, well, I can give this money to someone else, or I can do it. And I wouldn't have done it. Trust me, I wouldn't have said yes if I had no idea. I knew I could do it. I knew I could do it. And I needed the money, so I just said yes.

And you found yourself in this extraordinary position of going from odd jobs like this. You get this incredible agent suddenly. Oh, yeah. And suddenly you get Clash of the Titans. Yeah. And you're playing Apollo. then you get four movies in a year virtually. Did you just suddenly get, allow yourself a moment of thinking, okay, I think I'm going to be a movie store.

No. No, I didn't. No, no, absolutely not. No, I just kept going, they keep making a mistake. Did you feel that? And at some point, they're going to realize that I'm not good enough. And I don't have the chops to be doing this. It's just going to happen at some point. They're just going to work it out and they never did. And, you know, that was, yes, so early on I didn't think, oh, this is my new life, I'm going to be a movie star. I just thought, whatever money they're going to give you, do something right with it.

And I did. I sorted out my credit card, paid off my friend who gave me money to buy my mom and dad's next-door neighbor's house, sorted out my mom and dad's mortgage. I didn't have much left by that point. It wasn't like I was being paid lots of money in those first movies. And I thought, well, at least if that's it, I did something good with it. And now back to, you know, being a jobbing actor. Well, actually, I wasn't going to go back to it.

I'd already thought I was going to give it up by that point. And the movies just kept coming. They just kept coming. And I couldn't believe it. You tell this really interesting story about how you're working on, I think it was on Clash of the Titans. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it was when... Was that when you found yourself chatting to literally?

Liam Neeson. I didn't know any of this. It was fascinating to me that you have a thing called a leaning board. What does that mean? Well, because we were in armour that was clearly, you know, armour is not to be sat down in. I mean, armour is just not, they're not comfortable and it's costume armour but it's made of metal and it's very uncomfortable. So you couldn't sit in a seat. So they made these boards that were like six and a half foot long at a 45 degree angle.

you could just lean back on them. And so we just used to lean on these boards talking to each other. Oh my God, yeah, it's so weird. Imagine if someone had walked in and seen you and Liam Lee's. Imagine that was my first job. It was the weirdest thing I've ever done, yeah. Yeah, it was like so strange.

And Ray Fines was he in that? Was he in that? Wraith was in it, yeah. So I was interested to read that you, again, it's back to buying the Thesaurus. I feel you approached that job in the same way in movie acting that you thought, I'm going to watch and learn. Yeah.

And what did you notice about the way they performed that was useful to you? Well, it was the nuance and the subtlety of facial movement, the level at which they spoke, the volume at which they spoke, the intensity of what they did, but with a containment, which I thought was like, well, if you did that on a West End stage, the front row would struggle to hear you. Never mind the gods. And I realized, of course, because they're all miced.

And the camera is in their face. I was like, oh wow. No one had told me anything. I hadn't learned any of that in musical theatre school. You know, it was like, so I literally was, every day was like the first day of school. I was just constantly learning. And I'd write it all down.

And the next day I would try and utilize what I'd learned the day before watching Rafe or Liam or any of the other actors that were around you know I just just it was constantly learning and let me tell you to this day I'm learning really still to this day now I like to learn about the cameras and and behind the behind the camera I like to understand the lenses and and the focus pulling and you know all these different things that you know by the way are the without the crew and those amazingly clever people, movies would never be made. Actors are just a small cog in a very large machine.

You're a very versatile actor, aren't you? Because you can do, you know, you're an action hero and you can do all these big blockbuster movies. But there's also, I think there's a lot of vulnerability about you. There's a quality about you. I noticed in that film you did recently, which I loved. It was the recent film about you,

you know, a gay couple going through a divorce. And I loved that film. I think that vulnerable quality to you is, it's something that I think is sort of sets, I don't know, it's why I love your work. But I'm interested, after you've done all these films, you're presumably getting offers all the time because there's that, again, you talk about this,

which is interesting. It's almost a breakthrough point, isn't there, that one thing leads to another thing, and they think, oh, he's in that, we want him now. You know, you get hot very quickly. You do. But all this is going on, and you've got that slight pressure of suddenly it's becoming, people are digging out old cuts and old interviews you've done, and your sexuality is being discussed again.

Oh, yeah. And that's tough, Luke, because sort of no one's... do this all again. And also some people thinking I'd gone in the closet. I didn't go in the bloody closet. I was just getting on with the job. My job wasn't to come out again as far as I was concerned. But a lot of people assumed that because I wasn't talking about it all the time

meant that I was trying to hide it. And of course that wasn't the case. I had a boyfriend at home. We had a life together. We had a fish of tropical fish tank. You know, my... boyfriend at the time was a maths teacher in a school in Tottenham and I was supporting us so he could do his psychology degree and he's now a full-fledged psychologist you know all that no one knew about at the time

and it was really painful because I've never ever hidden it I've never been ashamed of it and but at the time the movie started I thought well let's just focus on the fact that I'm doing all these big movies but of course you know press gossip media tabloids they're never happy they always want to dig a bit more and unfortunately a lot of people will believe what's written and at that point it was very painful because they misinterpreted what had been written as I was ashamed of who I was and I was hiding and I I really wasn't I hadn't shouted it loud enough for the third time for people to understand now of course everything's different and

And I am who I am. Let's go across the bridge. And you were disfellowshiped? Is that what is de-fellowships? Yes. Yes. Yeah. That was like six years after I'd left the religion.

And what does that mean? Well, it means that no one else then will ever speak to you. You're basically dead to them. It was like you didn't exist. And yeah. I lost, by that point I'd lost touch with most my friends from the religion anyway because I moved away so far to London. And I sort of understood that that was what was going to happen, but it's very painful.

I don't have any friends from 16 below that I knew in my life. They haven't spoken to me ever since. And I miss some of them a lot, but my relationship with them stopped a very, very long time ago and I often wonder how they are and yeah. That's really hard. I don't blame them. It's not their fault. It's the religion that is told them that they can't.

And, you know, if you believe in something, you have to stick to the rules. And... But it's just a shame. The first time I remember being really aware of you was Tamara Drew. Oh my God. I loved that film so much. Because I'd always love Posey Simmons. Yes.

And it's such a great story in those... I mean, they were so much. sort of like the people I grew up with. Yes. In all those middle class. What newspaper was in? Posey Simmons. I think she might have been in The Guardian or something.

I think it was the Guardian too, yeah. But it was very Guardian reader and it was quite literally. But um. Because it was far from the Madding crowd. It was an adaptation of that. Exactly. Yeah. A modernised version.

She's so, but that was. And I was Terence Stamp. Yes. Was I Terence? You were very hot is what you were. Oh God. But so I remember that, but you, and you've gone on to starring, you've done some incredible work, Luke, over the years.

But we're going to have to discuss Beauty and the Beast, I'm afraid. Come on, let's do it. I saw you doing a Gaston off on Jonathan Ross's show. Yeah. Was it a huge act, one in Taran Edgerton? That's right, yeah. They were on promoting Eddie the Eagle movie, and I was on, I don't know what I was on promoting, something else.

It wasn't Beauty and the Beast, but I had finished Beauty and the Beast. Was it Dracula? No. Must have been after that. I don't know what it was. Not sure. But quite honestly, I love those boys.

You wipe the floor. You're my gas on. I'm sorry. You don't get pipes like that. Sorry, Hugh. It was a good night. I remember because I stood next to Hugh when we were singing. So in the film, I asked Alan Menkin, who wrote,

the the song with Howard Ashman there's this there's a line which goes I use an no what is it three dozen this was when what is it when was it I have a terrible memory come on film though every day what's about the eggs but when what do I say with the eggs what is she a problem every morning I eat five dozen eggs but um But it's the bit when he comes in, when he goes, and he puts Lafou on one shoulder and a girl on the other. It's halfway through. It's about the five dozen eggs. Let me see the five dozen. Yeah. So what are the two you in?

When I was a lad, I eat four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large. And now that I'm grown, I eat five dozen eggs. So I'm roughly the size of a barge. But then I did that. But then instead of staying on that note, I went up. Sorry. But so I'm roughly the size of the size of the size of the barge. of a budd. Anyway, I did that note and huge outwain turned to me and went, very good.

Made my night. People are literally open-mouthed because I should say, with St. James's Park. Raymond has not even battered an eyelid. But these women turn round and they were sort of your peak Gen Z beauty and the beast live action audience. I don't think I've ever seen a jaw drop like that. You were sort of disgustingly good looking in that film. They gave me fake teeth and everything. Did they? Why? Because they wanted to hide my fangs. Because I've got really long canines.

Yeah, but that came in useful for... For Dracula, it came in very useful, but they wanted to get rid of them, so they gave me much bigger teeth. So for a couple of weeks, I had a bit of a strange lisp until I worked the teeth out. Yeah, it was very fun, very, very fun. Did you ever have pressure to get your fangs? No.

As part of your character, I love that. No one would dare tell me to get rid of my fans, or my accent. Oh no. They tried to get me to move to LA for a long time and I was like, I'm absolutely not moving to LA. Really? I was 30 years old. I'm not giving up 14 years of my life.

I've created a family, a circle, a friendship, a support network. I wasn't going to give it up. I couldn't. I couldn't. Do you live here now then, in London? I live in London and I live in Lisbon and I have a house. in Ibiza and Madrid. It's a dream.

Yeah, it's a dream. It's a hard-earned dream, but yes, it's a dream nonetheless, and I'm very happy. I get to share it with my friends and my family. And you've got a long-term partner. Are you comfortable? Yes, I'm very happy, yeah. I've had a great relationship. He's cultured.

Very. I'm going to have to get my forsaurus out when I meet him. You're a little warm now, I can tell you. He's just stood up a little bit. Or you want a better view. Which is not high enough, are you doing? Luke, I think, what's your partner's name? Fran.

I think Luke and Fran are going to have to get a dog soon, don't you? We have to. People are turning, not for me, Danny. They're just turning for Raymond. He's just so used to it. You're such a celebrity in St. James's Park. People are looking at both. You're quite the combo, is what I would say.

No, we really want a dog. And what I'm interested to know, I've got his little paw on my finger tip. Oh my god, it's the cutest thing. Oh, you are gorgeous. He may have to come and turn on the Christmas lights with me tonight. Are you turning on the lights? I'm turning on the Covent Garden Christmas lights tonight.

Oh, shut up. Yeah, that's where I'm going straight after this. I love that you get Covent Garden. It's quite high-end light. It's quite high-end, right? Never turned lights on in my life. He's not messing about with the Tottencourt Road. He's going straight to Covent Garden.

Look at this. Was that a real kind of like game changer doing Beauty and the Beast? Just in terms of the recognizement. Well, it changed my demographic. Yeah. I was recognised already a lot from Fast and the Furious and Dracula and the Hobbit, of course. But that was for adults and then Beauty and the Beast came along and all of a sudden there's like three-year-olds just wanting to come and say hello at a restaurant or in the airport. That would be the funniest thing.

Really? I'd walk past a screaming child and all of a sudden they'd stop screaming and just stare at me open mouths as I went by with my luggage. And it's, yeah, it's an extraordinary thing. Well, I've got to say I'm a Gaston apologist. Afraid, afraid I am. But then I also fancied the wrong and then Titanic. You know, the mean posh one.

Oh, yeah, Billy Zane. Billy Zane, I liked. I'm a Billy Zane apologist as well. He's got great eyes, Billy Zane. Amazing eyes. You said for Luke, which I found really interesting in your book, You said, I wouldn't recommend fame necessarily. Why is that?

Well, there's the nice side of it, of course, as we've seen today, where people smile and you can see like it's a happy experience they're having. It's a happy experience Ray's having. Ray's loving it. Ray's so used to this. He's a superstar. Go on. What aspects of it wouldn't you recommend necessarily?

It's the fact that you are, you lose. a sense of privacy. Sorry, we've just come across his little chihuahua. Is that a chihuahua? Ever so sweet. What's it called? Cush. Hello, darling. I'm sorry. Hello. Hello. This one's Raymond.

This is Raymond. He's done walking for the day. Yeah, my friend's carrying him now. See if you have your little platform. Lovely to meet you. I don't know what we're talking about. We were just saying what about? fame is tough. I presume the lack of privacy. It's the, it's the feeling self-conscious about,

I don't know, going sitting in a coffee shop on my own without knowing people are watching or somebody comes up to you in a restaurant. I've eaten a few times on my own recently and somebody comes up and they say, excuse me, can I take a picture? And of course I'm not going to say no, it would be rude. but then everybody in the restaurant is aware of you being there and I just, weirdly, I was never in it for that acknowledgement. I'm in it because I like to entertain people, but now I'm in a place where people, once the floodgates are opened with one person asking a picture, that's it.

And it's not a bad thing, of course it's nice, but if it's all the time, it can be quite demanding. Obviously, I talk about it in the book, you know, like, I have to put myself in their shoes. And I go, of course, Dracula's just walked into their little bakery. And of course, it's the most bizarre thing for them. And I have to use a lot of empathy and understand where I put myself in their shoes. So that's sort of where I am. And I kind of cope with it well.

But fame, I wouldn't say, you should never come into this industry for the fame part. I think I didn't. I just love acting. I just love singing. I love entertaining. Well, bear in mind, you'd always done ensemble work because you'd work to musical theatre. And I think people that have had that background, sometimes that's very helpful, because you see it much more as a company. You know, you don't see yourself as the star. Yes, you're never front and centre. Yeah.

Well, Luke, I wanted to ask you, we're going to have to let you go soon to turn on the Covent Garden Christmas lights. Although I don't know if Raymond's going to let you go. I've got to be honest. Raymond's coming with me, darling. You have to find a new dog. I'm afraid I'm so awful. He's plotted. I think I would probably let you take him. Don't you dare say that.

I loved your book so much. I've so fallen for you as a person, Luke Evans. I want to ask you before we go. The question I often ask people, which is, what do you most hope people would say about you once you walk out of the room? And what do you most fear? So let's start with the horrible one first. What do you worry people might say when you walk out of the room?

And what do you hope they'd say? I would hate to think people didn't care. Yeah. They thought that I didn't care. Right. Because I really do. And what do you hope they'd say? I hope they'd say that, what a nice guy.

What a nice guy. That I gave them the time of day and said hello and ask them questions and I think that was what I'd like I just try and be nice try and be kind well you don't strike me as an angry I can't imagine you have it do you have a temper

well you'd have to ask Fran there oh I will be are you a sulker? I have a no no I don't sulk I think you're out with it on you straight out get it out the way get it out and then back to normal very like wash it off

and get on with it on with I know someone that holds resentment. I don't have regret. I don't live with those things. Bitterness is a very dangerous, toxic energy, which I don't want to be around. Life is for living. Life is for forgiving. Life is for learning. Life is for accepting. That's basically how I want to live my life. Luke Evans, it's been an absolute pleasure. I kind of knew I was going to love you. Oh, Gaston! Oh, Gaston! Ray has completely fallen for you. Your book is so brilliant.

Look at this little munchkin. He's just the cutest little brough. I could put you in a little Christmas hat, maybe a little couple of bobbles. By the way, my mother's dog, Georgie, would never have sat in my arms like this. He hated me. Did he? He knew I was a threat to his, my mother's attention. They used to call Luke, your brothers here, do you want to say hello? want to say hello? I'd be like, he's not my brother. He is not my brother. He's a little shih Tzu.

Look, people are taking pictures of the doggie. Look, he's so cute. I mean, it is quite the photo hop. Luke, it's been such a pleasure. Thank you so much. And congratulations. You've written a really special book and you should be so proud of yourself. Thank you so much. I'm glad you read it and Oh, I loved it. You got it. You got it. you again so he's leaning even more into me at this point because he knows you're about to take him away Raymond will you say goodbye to Luke he's already whispered sweet nothings in my ear all right here you go take him back what a joy what a joyful man you're we've got a bit of a posse in our gathering

that's all right thank you so much Luke and congratulations do you want a picture do you want to take one go on there let's do oh god who's taking it nobody's Thank you. No worries. We've all got lovely long coats on. Look at us. We're like, we got the memo. Such a cool, good looking guy.

Thank you so much. I'm sorry you said every day. Not, no. Yes, I wish I did. All right, girls. Nice to meet you, bye. You look great in your coats, girls. I do.

Look, look at us. Great coat action going on. Thank you. Oh, God, you don't last for a lot, do you? Second one's excellent. second one cost. We can't afford you, I think. There we go.

There we go. Luke, you're amazing. And honestly, that book, it's amazing. I laughed, I cried. Tell your friends. Oh, we're going to tell the world. Enjoy the question of slides. Bye, wonderful, ma'am.

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