Luke Evans reveals heartbreaking lengths he went to avoid school bullies: ‘Never showered!’
Luke Evans has opened up about the bullying he endured during his school years, revealing he would deliberately take a longer route home in an effort to avoid his tormentors.
The 47-year-old Welsh actor reflected on his childhood while discussing his role in ITV’s upcoming psychological thriller The Party, in which he plays political journalist Martin Gilmour.
Speaking to GB News at a Q&A for the five-part drama, Mr Evans explained he found striking similarities between his own experiences and those of his character, who struggles with feelings of being an outsider after entering a world of wealth and privilege.
The actor said he had “resonated with the story” from the moment he first read Elizabeth Day’s novel, on which the series is based.
Luke Evans has opened up about the bullying he endured during his school years
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Drawing parallels between himself and Martin, Mr Evans recalled “coming from a small village” before moving away at 17 without knowing “anyone or anything”.
He also pointed to his religious upbringing as something that had shaped his early life.
Mr Evans said: “Being brought up in a religious background, so really having blinkers on for such a long time, and then all of a sudden (having them) torn off, and then arriving in this city and going to college and feeling very much like an outsider.”
The actor went on to reveal the painful extent of his experiences at school, explaining he actively changed his behaviour in an attempt to escape bullying.
The Welsh actor said he struggled to stand up for himself while growing up
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ITV
Recalling similarities he found with Martin, Mr Evans said: “Desperately not wanting to go onto a football pitch or rugby, but never being picked, never showering in the changing rooms, taking the long road home from school so the bullies wouldn’t catch me.”
He added growing up in a “very passive, quiet household” meant he “didn’t know how to stand up” for himself.
The actor said those experiences allowed him to connect particularly closely with Martin, whose life is transformed after wealthy schoolboy Ben Fitzmaurice, played by Tom Cullen, befriends him.
He explained unlike his character, however, he did not have somebody like Ben to help him navigate his teenage years.
Luke Evans helped bring The Party to the screen after discovering Elizabeth Day’s novel during lockdown
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ITV
Mr Evans joked: “Sadly [that] never happened to me. That would have been fantastic. I didn’t have a Ben.”
The Beauty and the Beast star said he eventually found his own way forward, describing himself today as a “confident man” who has embraced opportunities and learned to face challenges head-on.
His experiences also proved useful when filming the drama, with Mr Evans admitting there were days on set that felt “therapeutic” because of the unusually close connection he felt to his character.
“There were moments for sure where I was emotionally connected on a very deep level with Martin, and it wasn’t hard for me to tap into that,” he explained.
Mr Evans added while actors cannot always draw directly on their own experiences for a role, “this role I definitely could”.
He said he could feel Martin’s “pain”, “confusion” and the complexity of a life built like a “very fragile house of cards”.
The Party, adapted for television by Sarah Solemani, centres on Martin’s decades-long relationship with Ben after the pair first meet at an elite boarding school.
Martin, a working-class scholarship pupil, is drawn into his wealthy friend’s privileged world, with the drama exploring class, identity, belonging and the secrets that have followed the two men into adulthood.
The cast of The Party gathered to discuss the upcoming ITV psychological drama
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Mr Evans was instrumental in bringing the novel to television after discovering Day’s book during lockdown and taking it to World Productions.
He revealed the project took around four years to reach the point where cameras finally began rolling, marking the first time he had been involved in a television production from its earliest stages.
The actor also serves as an executive producer on the series, alongside starring opposite Cullen, Solemani, Lydia Leonard, Joanna Scanlan, Lindsay Duncan and Douglas Hodge.
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