‘Acting was not the plan’
WELSH ACTOR LUKE EVANS SHOWS OFF HIS SINGING CHOPS TO KEITH WATSON
HE’S been killer Bard The Bowman in The Hobbit, played the arrogant Gaston in Beauty And The Beast and portrayed Dracula. So, Luke Evans, what song best sums you up? Something hard rock or heavy metal, maybe?
‘It’s funny, if you ask any of my friends what song sums me up then it would have to be The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,’ laughs Evans. ‘As a kid I had it on a CD and I played it on a loop. It’s the song I always find myself singing.’
No surprise, then, that Roberta Flack’s romantic anthem takes pride of place on At Last, an album of his favourite songs that’s been 20 years in the brewing. For while he’s carved out an estimable career as an actor with a hard edge – when we speak, Evans is in the middle of shooting a second series of dark period thriller The Alienist – it’s singing that is his first love. Well, he is Welsh.
‘If you’d told me ten years ago that I’d have the acting career I’ve got, I’d have laughed in your face!’ he says. ‘I spent nine years doing musical theatre in the West End. I’m enormously grateful for where acting has taken me but it was never the plan.’
So At Last, an album of classic pop reinterpreted by Evans in an expressive baritone, finds the actor coming full circle. And he’s fully in touch with his feminine side – alongside the Flack classic, he tackles tunes made famous by Etta James, Des’ree, Cher, Pat Benatar and more.
‘It’s interesting when you hear a man’s voice singing a song that’s more associated with a female voice, it takes on a completely different vibe,’ he says. ‘I spent a lot of time trying to make the songs my own but if people prefer the originals, I am good with that. I just chose songs that meant something to me.’
If there’s a theme to At Last it’s a lingering sense of melancholy and Evans concedes it’s a very different album to the one he might have made if he’d had the chance in his twenties.
‘I’m 40 so I’ve lived a bit by now,’ he says. ‘I know what it feels like to be alone and I know what it feels like to be hurt. And in terms of my voice, I think it’s much more relaxed now than when I was singing on stage.’
It’s been a full-on vocal assault from Evans lately, with a contribution to the star-studded Children In Need album in the shape of Smile. He’s also stretching his vocal cords in this year’s Royal Variety Performance, due to be screened next month. But with a jam-packed acting schedule, plans for touring At Last have to wait until next year.
‘My new movie Midway is just out and there’s a new animated feature coming and I’m in the middle of The Alienist – but I really want to do a tour with an orchestra,’ he says.
And does he harbour dreams of a big singing role on film? ‘I’ve got irons in the fire to play a singer,’ he says, ‘but I can’t say who – as soon as you reveal something, it never happens!’
We’ll have to guess, then. Tom Jones? Perhaps Cher would be the real killer choice…
Bard boy: Evans. in The Hobbit.
At Last is out on Friday