Luke Evans finds role in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ liberating
LUKE Evans found his role in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ “liberating”.
The 37-year- old actor relished every moment of playing the “ridiculous, self- absorbed and terrifying” villain Gaston in the new live- action take on the classic fairytale because his alter ego was so different to himself in real life.
He said: “It’s fun to play a character who does all the things you’d never dare to do in real life. It’s liberating - you can’t feel self- conscious about playing somebody like Gaston, you just have to go with it.
“I owe it to the animated giant of a creature we see in the original to be that ridiculous and self-absorbed and terrifying. And to enjoy it.”
It wasn’t just the comic aspects of the role that Luke enjoyed, as he also delighted in the “challenge” of the action scenes.
He said: “Stunts are a trust exercise - it’s you plus a team of stunt people.
“You can’t fear stuff - the second you feel nervous about jumping off a rooftop, you have to let the stuntman do it, because you forget about acting. But that’s the challenge and I really enjoy it.”
The Welsh actor made sure he took away some souvenirs from the set of the film, which also stars Emma Watson, Dan Stevens and Josh Gad.
He told Woman magazine: “I keep all the swords from my films. Gaston didn’t have a real one, but he has an interesting breast plate, which wasn’t used in the film so I asked to take that.
“I also have the doll. I was blown away by the likeness.”
Meanwhile, Luke almost turned down the role of Gaston in ‘Beauty and the Beast’.
Although the actor has delighted fans and critics with his portrayal of the villain Gaston in the new live- action take on the classic fairytale, he admitted that he almost said no to the part because he wasn’t sure about it.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “It took a couple of tries by my agents to get me in for ‘Beauty and the Beast’ because I hadn’t really watched the animated movie for a very long time and I had forgotten how great the journey of Gaston is.
“You see all the facets of the character, from the loveable rogue to the buffoon to the jealous, revengeful sort of monster that he becomes by the end of the movie.
So, it actually took me sitting down and watching the cartoon with my godchildren which made me see how brilliant the role was and that I totally should do it.
“If there’s one thing I’m comfortable doing in this life it’s singing. It’s like therapy to me. I’ll sing to anybody at any time, at anything, I will just sing. I love to sing.
“It was a joy for me to finally get to do it on the big screen in such a wonderful vehicle as Beauty and the Beast, playing this character with those songs. It was magic.”
Luke also said the controversy over the “exclusively gay moment” in the Disney movie has been “blown out of proportion”.