Action Star Doesn’t Realize His Gay Past Is All Over The Internets

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 4:57pm

Evans came out early in his career and did several candid interviews with the gay press, discussing his decision to be out, how he thought it would impact his career and even his taste in gay porn. So why is he being portrayed as straight in the British press these days? Don’t his handlers know the truth is just a few mouse clicks away?

Back in 2002, Evans starred in the Boy George musical Taboo in London’s West End and gave an interview to The Advocate, where he was quite open about being gay-

I knew that even though my part was a straight character, everybody knew me as a gay man and, in my life in London, I never tried to hide it. I knew I was going to have to do interviews with gay magazines, 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. I’ve never been a very good liar.

...The September 12, 2010, edition of the Daily Mail reported:
Handsome Welsh actor Luke Evans, 31, who stars with Gemma Arterton in Tamara Drewe, is dating fashion industry PR Holly Goodchild, 27—even though she describes herself as single on Facebook.

After being friends for some years, the pair are now an item, Holly said at the premiere of Luke’s film last week. ‘Luke’s lovely – we’re really old friends and it just sort of happened,’ she said. He added: ‘We are nowhere near engaged but things are really good.’

Sure there are bisexual actors, but to go from proclaiming yourself gay—and admitting you’ve been watching gay porn religiously for 15 years—to being linked to a PR flack (the beardiest job in the world, FYI) is a real head-scratcher. And in his early candid interviews, Evans never says anything about dating women—it’s all gay, gay, gay.

In a more recent interview with British Cosmo Evans is slightly more evasive.

“Just the other week, I sang to a very close female friend. She almost cried. And I love to cook! I’ve impressed hundreds of women with my cooking. And they always come back for more.”

“Absolutely we can have female friends and not want to have sex with them. You dream about having sex with them, but you don’t actually have sex with them.”

“In 10 years, I’d love to live near the sea, in a warmer climate. I could see myself with three dogs…and it’d be great to share them with someone else.”

Ah yes, “someone.” The pronoun game lives on!

We’re not saying all actors have to be out. We’re not even saying you can’t explicitly pretend to be straight (though it’s kind of gross). But once you step out of the closet and into the light, you can’t go running back in when its convenient. This isn’t the 1950s—or even the ’80s—when homo hijinx could be hushed up with a few phone calls. In the Internet Age, to borrow from the Bard, the penis that men do lives after them.



Queerty Updated On: 8/8/11 at 04:57 PM

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 5:23pm

LOL -- do a Google images search and the very first thing -- the black tank top photo -- fairly screams "I'M A HOMO!!! YAY!!!!!!"

Sheesshhhh.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 5:50pm

Heh. I totally agree with you.

Gay entertainment site AfterElton discovered his Wikipedia page has changed from saying he's openly gay to something more parsed and complicated.

Luke lives a private life and rarely speaks about his personal life. He has made it clear in the past that press and private life are very seperate[sic] and should never be mixed. There has been interest in an interview he did In 2002, while starring in Taboo, Evans was interviewed by The Advocate and spoke about his personal life. In the article Evans stated, "I knew that even though my part was a straight character everybody knew me as a gay man, and in my life in London I never tried to hide it. ... 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."[3] In the last 10 years Luke Evans stance has always been to remain quietly dignified and focus solely on his career, family and friends which are incredibly important to him.

Now, even that has been removed. If only past articles were as easy to scrub as a Wikipedia page. No one can erase this interview with GayDarNation where Evans, then playing a gay pornstar in a play, talks about his love of homosexual smut, "I bought my first [gay porn] film when I was 15 and now I have a good collection and I add to it regularly. I research it almost every night!" When asked what makes a good gay porn star, he responded, "an enormous big fat cock!" That sounds pretty gay to us.

When AfterElton finally got a response from Evans PR flack about what was going on with his Wikipedia page and the status of his sexual orientation, here is what they said:

I do not comment on my client's personal lives in the media. As for Luke, he did so once, a long time ago when he was an inexperienced, young actor and now with maturity and hindsight, he has learned not to engage the press in his personal life again.

Gawker

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 6:20pm

All this stuff now about him dating women MUST be from his handlers. If not, it's just sad. Well, it's sad either way, but to go from the super out-ness of this article to remaining "quietly dignified"?

[tazber]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 7:41pm

Never heard of him, but the last thing I would think of based on the pic above is "action star".

[Q]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:02pm

He seems to have come out of nowhere, and is exploding all over the place in a bunch of high-profile projects (according to imdb.)

He must give one hell of a blowjob, or have an ass lined with gold.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:04pm

I think he's been working pretty steadily on stage in the UK for a while.
Updated On: 8/8/11 at 08:04 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:57pm

Hardly the first time an out actor--particularly a stage actor--went back into the closet when he/she started getting film work. Evans does seem to have been more press-happy about his sexuality than most young actors, though. I wonder if his handlers are the ones trying to butch him up.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 9:35pm

I wonder if it's his handlers, too and if Queerty, Gawker, et al just kind of ran with it without getting all the information. I just don't know how you can go from saying you want to live an open life as a gay person to... well, not living an open life as a gay person.

His Wikipedia page is on lockdown. Just like Orfeh's!
Updated On: 8/8/11 at 09:35 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 9:49pm

Just go to her manhunt page.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 9:51pm

I immediately thought it might be. It reminded me of when NPH's publicist responded to a question of his sexuality by stating that he was "not of that persuasion," when everyone (and especially anyone living in New York) knew that he was, in fact, of that persuasion. Or how Billy Porter was encouraged to talk about his "girlfriends" and write love song-type numbers to women when he was trying to have a career in R&B. Or when Chris Colfer's people tried to backpeddle after he initially came out by having him say that he was "questioning" his sexuality, when in other interviews he'd basically said he knew he was gay for as long as he could remember.

Or when Zach Quinto and Lee Pace...oh, wait.

[canmark]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 10:13pm

Whether he's gay or not, Luke Evans does come across as straight (and sexy) in Tamara Drewe.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 10:15pm

Further proof that gay actors CAN in fact play straight (and vice versa).

[sabrelady]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 12:31am

"Homo Hijinks"

Broke me up Phyllis- bet they steal it for the next Bway Bares!

[strummergirl]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 12:56am

My favorite unnecessary PR damage control over this kind of thing is still Tom Hardy's people saying he was misquoted for admitting he had sexual relations with men. He basically said he experimented when he was younger and likes the male form but just not for sex any more (he was also candid about not stereotyping people on their sexuality, including himself, as he identified as straight). But his PR people stated he was talking in the context of playing a gay character he played and all of what he said were direct quotes from the character he played(?).

[tazber]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 1:38am

If it's his PR people who are behind his "change of heart" then they are pretty awful at their jobs not to have known about the earlier interviews.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 4:27am

I wish I could take credit for that turn of phrase, sabrelady, but that was all Queerty. :)

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 6:17am

I dont know if hes gay or bi but he has 100 percent had relatiosnhips with men including someone i know.

It's a shame he's gonna climb back in the closet for Hollywood, why actors who are trying to make it in America feel they have to do that is silly, surely we are past that now.

I loved Luke as a theatre performer, his performance in Taboo was great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY0-l0eK4Ao

He was in the utter disaster that was Rent Remixed playing Rodger and was one of the only good things about the show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFcOBcOkVXw

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 6:17am

I dont know if hes gay or bi but he has 100 percent had relatiosnhips with men including someone i know.

It's a shame he's gonna climb back in the closet for Hollywood, why actors who are trying to make it in America feel they have to do that is silly, surely we are past that now.

I loved Luke as a theatre performer, his performance in Taboo was great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY0-l0eK4Ao

He was in the utter disaster that was Rent Remixed playing Rodger and was one of the only good things about the show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFcOBcOkVXw

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 10:06am

or have an ass lined with gold

That sounds incredibly uncomfortable.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 11:47am

^ for everyone concerned.

[Q]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 12:11pm

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 12:12pm

Does anyone remember a few years ago when Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey were 'dating'?

It seems to me that PR reps are just people who are bad at their jobs.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 1:54pm

I should sell articles about how Rosie O'Donnell was just experimenting for 30 years. It was a phase.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 8/9/11 at 6:37pm

So sorry Queerty- Thanks for the re direction Phyliss.


Le mot juste!