Luke Evans has revealed Gemma Arterton’s hilarious response after he told her he was gay.
The actor has reflected on his experiences of coming out to his film co-stars in a new memoir, revealing that, despite his friends and family knowing his sexuality, he originally kept it secret from his Hollywood peers as he was worried it would affect the roles he secured.
In the new memoir titled Boy from the Valleys: An Unexpected Journey, Evans wrote: “When I started working in movies, it suddenly became an issue again because at that time you just didn’t get openly gay actors playing straight romantic leads.”
He said that his “sexuality became a ‘thing’ to be handled and strategised, rather than simply being just another aspect of my identity, like having green eyes or being Welsh”.
One of the first co-stars he came out to was Arterton, whom the Fast & Furious actor worked with on the 2010 romantic comedy film Tamara Drewe.
The Welsh star appeared in the film as one of the love interests of Arterton’s titular lead character and, during its production, he struck up a friendship with the London-born actor.
Evans said that his then-long-term partner Lee only visited him once while he was shooting the film, “primarily because we couldn’t be open about our relationship”.
He said that, while he used to introduce him as his ‘friend” to many people in the film industry, he “did end up telling” Arterton “about who he was” – and she had a brilliant response when Evans told her the truth.
“Our bedrooms were next to each other in our hotel and when I confessed that Lee was actually my boyfriend she said with a smile: ‘Honey, I’m in the room next door – I know!’
Evans continued: “It was such a relief to be able to be open with her and know that she had my back regardless, because she knew how the industry worked and the pressure I was under. The big American studios were still very much of the ‘a man is a man’ mindset.”
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When the tabloids ran an article claiming his friend Holly was his love interest, Evans told all of his management team he was gay.
“My publicists told me not to worry, that they would make sure I wasn’t ever put in any position where I was made to feel uncomfortable. They would not respond to gossip.
“I knew that it would come out eventually (and I knew I would never deny it once it did) but I hoped that if I got a good body of work behind me then the fact I was gay might not change anything.”
Boy from the Valleys: An Unexpected Journey is out now.