Luke Evans was raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses

[Jack Ryan]

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Luke Evans (born 15 April 1979)[1] is a Welsh actor and singer. Evans began his career on the stage, performing in many of London's West End productions such as Rent, Miss Saigon, and Piaf before getting his breakthrough role in Hollywood starring in the Clash of the Titans 2010 remake, playing Apollo. Following his debut, Evans was cast in such action and thriller films as Immortals (2011), The Raven (2012), and the re-imagined The Three Musketeers (2011), in which he played Aramis.

In 2013, Evans starred as the main antagonist Owen Shaw in the blockbuster Fast & Furious 6, and also played Bard the Bowman in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.[2] Evans also portrayed the vampire Dracula in the character's film origin story, Dracula Untold.[3]

Early life
Luke Evans was born in Pontypool,[4] and raised in Aberbargoed,[1] a small town in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, the only child of Yvonne and David Evans.[5][6] He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, though he left the religion when he was 16 and left school at the same time.[7]

At the age of seventeen, he moved to Cardiff,[8] where he studied under the supervision of Louise Ryan, an established singing coach.[9] In 1997 he won a scholarship to The London Studio Centre in Kings Cross, London.[10] He graduated in 2000.

Career

Evans at the 2011 WonderCon
From 2000 to 2008 Evans starred in many of London's West End productions including La Cava, Taboo, Rent, Miss Saigon and Avenue Q as well as several fringe shows in London and at the Edinburgh Festival.

In 2008, he landed his most significant theatre role playing Vincent in the play Small Change written and directed by Peter Gill at the Donmar Warehouse, it was significant in that he gained recognition from film casting directors and US agencies from this play and he was also nominated for the Evening Standard award for best newcomer because of his performance in Small Change. Later that same year he did his second show at the Donmar Warehouse, Piaf, in which he played Yves Montand.

Evans got his first film audition aged thirty. In 2009, he landed his first film, playing the Greek god Apollo in the 2010 remake Clash of the Titans. Also in 2010, he appeared as Clive in the film Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, directed by Matt Whitecross, as the Sheriff of Nottingham's thug in Robin Hood, alongside Matthew Macfadyen (whom he would later play alongside again in The Three Musketeers), and played handyman and good guy Andy, in director Stephen Frears' film Tamara Drewe, based on Posy Simmond's comic strip. Evans went on to portray DI Craig Stokes in Blitz (2011), the film adaptation of Ken Bruen's novel of the same name, in which he starred with Jason Statham and Paddy Considine. In early 2010, he shot the independent movie, Flutter, directed by Giles Borg.

Evans played the Musketeer Aramis in Paul W. S. Anderson's version of The Three Musketeers (filmed in 2010 and released in 2011). He was cast in a lead role in Tarsem Singh's Greek epic, Immortals (2011), in which he played the King of the Gods, Zeus. And at the end of 2010, he took a role opposite John Cusack in James McTeigue's film The Raven, replacing Jeremy Renner. In the film, released in 2012 and set in mid-19th century Baltimore, Evans played Detective Emmett Fields, who investigates a series of murders alongside Cusack's Edgar Allan Poe.[11] Shooting took place in Budapest and Serbia in November 2010. In 2011, he shot No One Lives, a psychological horror film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, in New Orleans, and began filming a role in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, playing the role of Bard the Bowman.[2]

In 2013, Evans played the antagonist Owen Shaw in Furious 6, and in 2014, he played Dracula in the film Dracula Untold.[12][13][14]

Evans was cast as Eric Draven in the reboot of The Crow. In January 2015, it was announced that he officially exited the project to pursue other projects.[15] In June 2014, Evans join the cast of the upcoming film High-Rise with Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons.[16] In October 2014, it was announced that he had signed to star in Free Fire, directed by Ben Wheatley and co-starring Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde and Armie Hammer.[17] In March 2015, it was announced that he would be playing the role of the villainous Gaston in Disney's upcoming live-action remake, Beauty and the Beast, which co-stars Emma Watson.[18]

Personal life
Evans is openly gay. In a 2002 interview, he said, "Everybody knew me as a gay man, and in my life in London I never tried to hide it," and that by being open he would not have "that skeleton in the closet they can rattle out".[19] In 2004, he said his acting career had not suffered by being out.[20] In 2014, Evans acknowledged the importance of marketability, and that, although he does not hide his homosexuality, he is reticent to discuss it with the media.[21] The Spanish media has reported he is in a relationship with model Jon Kortajarena.[22][23][24]

In 2015, Evans was named one of GQ's 50 best dressed British men.[25]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Evans_(actor)

On the Jonathan Ross show actor Luke Evans said he was raised a JW. He used to go from door to door in Wales. He left the religion at sixteen. He obviously didn't want to talk about it and Jonathan didn't push him.

[Guest Indiana]

 

Born to a bricklayer and a cleaner in Aberbargoed, a tiny village in the Welsh valleys, Evans partly attributes his tenacity to his upbringing as a Jehovah's Witness. His family didn't celebrate birthdays or Christmas, and his education was miserable. "I was often looked at as a leper by kids at school, because I was a Jehovah's Witness. They didn't like it – you were 'weird'. And on Saturday mornings you'd be knocking at their doors. I remember standing there with my mum and dad, thinking, 'Oh my God, I know whose door this is, and I'll have to see them on Monday.' It was terrible."

Terrible but character building? "Well, I'm still here, and I'm smiling," he says, explaining that being bullied gave him thick skin and that having doors slammed in his face prepared him for rejection. "When I didn't get a job I thought, 'Don't worry, there'll be another one.' I still live by that now. Nothing really fazes me any more."

Evans had always wanted to sing, so at 16 he left school, quit the Jehovah's Witnesses and got a job to finance some singing lessons. He won a scholarship to The London Studio Centre, graduated in 2000 and rose up the theatrical ranks for nine years, starring in the likes of Rent and Miss Saigon. Then, off the back of Small Change at the Donmar Warehouse, he auditioned for the 2009 film adaptation of Dorian Gray. He didn't get the role, but his audition tape did the rounds in LA. "A lot of people said, 'Who's this guy? Where's he been?' That's how it all began."

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/dec/07/luke-evans-swaps-valleys-for-shire-hobbit

[The Librarian]

Included on my list:

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

I know it's reported that Prince gave $30,000 a month to his local Kingdom Hall, and I would guess that Michael Jackson gave a similar amount to the one he attended, and they were never officially and publicly censured by the Society, or the Elders, so it would be consistent that this is the ruling operating principle that protects Serena Williams.

THE GOLDEN RULE:

He who has the Gold, makes the rules.

[Evacuated]

6 hours ago, Indiana said:

Evans partly attributes his tenacity to his upbringing as a Jehovah's Witness. His family didn't celebrate birthdays or Christmas, and his education was miserable. "I was often looked at as a leper by kids at school, because I was a Jehovah's Witness.

Unfortunately, not tenacious enough, as he succumbed to the "king's shilling". Anyway all is not yet lost.

I keep thinking he is Orlando Bloom.

[Guest Indiana]

They are different 😂

Legolas is sooooo beautiful 

[Evacuated]

Hmm....Gets complicated

 

[Isabella]

The ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ star has recalled the “difficult” moment he told his parents, who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, that he is gay, as he said it was tough for him to be honest with them at first, but insists they now have an “acceptance of each other”.

He said: “As with a lot of parents, it was difficult for them to understand. And I think the religion is also a difficult thing with added pressure. But it took time, and it took respect, and patience, and understanding and acceptance of each other, which doesn’t come overnight. It was a very scary thing.”

Luke was inspired to come out to his parents after a friend told him they “have the right to be told”, so they could make their own decision on how to react.

He added: “They’ve lived through loads of stuff, they deserve to know and they deserve to know by me, and then they can make their own decision, and I was prepared for that. As an only child, it’s a difficult thing, but I felt that’s how it had to be and that’s what I did.”

The 41-year-old actor also insisted he has come to understand that his parents’ narrow experiences of the world don’t change how much they love him.

He explained to Attitude magazine: “Everybody has their own journey. By not telling them, you’re not giving them the opportunity to make the decision of how to respond and how to react. But most of the time people are good. And it worked out for me at least, and I’m very grateful for it. It’s taken a long time, but we’re very good now.”

https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/luke-evans-coming-parents-scary-1270070.html