'Confident' Luke Evans opens up on finding his feet in Hollywood

Hollywood star Luke Evans might have a string of box office hits to his name, but he believes his success has been all to do with learning from others. 

Speaking at the launch of his new ITV drama The Party, the 47-year-old actor revealed that he drew a lot on his own Welsh upbringing when playing Martin Gilmour, a shy young boy-turned-prominent political journalist. 

Luke Evans's journey to Hollywood 

Born an only child in Pontypool, Wales, and growing up in the small town of Aberbargoed, Luke belonged to a family of Jehovah's Witnesses, something he found alienating at the time. Luke left the religion, along with his hometown, at the age of 17 when he moved to Cardiff and then London. 

It was the beginning of a long, successful journey. Despite arriving in London "feeling very much like an outsider, not having any knowledge other than I could sing," Luke graduated from London Studio Centre in 2000 and made his way onto the West End stage that same year, playing Billy in the musical Taboo. 

From the London theatre district it was onwards to Hollywood, where Luke garnered international acclaim in films including The Girl on the Train, Beauty and the Beast and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to name but a few. 

He now lives in New York with his partner Fran Tomas, a 37-year-old construction project manager from Spain, having made his Broadway debut in The Rocky Horror Show earlier this year. The couple share a miniature dachshund, Lala, who made the trans-Atlantic move with them. 

Luke's role in 'The Party' 

Despite his fame, it was Luke's early experiences that really informed his performance in The Party. The actor "naturally" drew similarities between himself and his character, both being only children from Wales who find themselves thrust into unfamiliar, cut-throat worlds. 

The now-fierce Welshman admitted he lacked competitive spirit as a boy, dreading the school sports field, taking the long way home to avoid bullies and growing up in "a very passive, quiet household [in] which I didn't know how to stand up for myself." 

Luckily for Luke and his audience, he found his voice. "I found my way through it, and I'm a confident man, and I've taken every opportunity and run with it and face a challenge head on," he reflected. The secret? Being a keen observer - much like his eagle-eyed protagonist. 

"Watching and listening is sort of how I've managed to survive this industry. I'm always watching other actors or older actors that I've been admiring for years and I'm finally in a scene with them, and I listen and watch and stay quiet and see what I can glean from them and take as tools,” Luke said. 

As for Martin, it seems that Luke found him at just the right time, while reading The Party during lockdown. 

"I basically read to find roles for myself. And if by page 10 there's not a really interesting, charismatic male lead, it goes to Oxfam," the actor joked. 

"Selfishly, I'm at a stage in my career where I want to develop, I want to find interesting stories and content, whether it's a newspaper article, a book, or an idea. And this book, you pick it up and you don't want to put it down." 

What is 'The Party' about?

Based on the hit 2017 novel of the same name by Elizabeth Day, The Party follows the intense and complicated friendship between journalist Martin Gilmour (Luke Evans) and charismatic aristocrat-turned-politician Ben Fitzmaurice (Downton Abbey’s Tom Cullen). 

Raised in a working-class household by a single mother (BAFTA winner Joanna Scanlan), Martin secures a scholarship to an elite public boarding school, where he is swept into a completely new world. 

Thirty years on, everything comes to a head at a lavish country estate bash when Ben’s political ambitions threaten to expose a dark, shared past that could ruin them both. 

The Party begins streaming on ITV, STV, ITVX and STV Player on Sunday 11 October at 9pm.