UPDATE: Luke Evans Comes Out Of The Closet. Again. Sort Of.
The evolution of out gay closeted straight ambiguously gay action star Luke Evans has been nothing if not interesting, and this weekend Luke switched up his story yet again.
In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily for his new big-budget epic Dracula Untold, the Welsh actor was asked if he was setting a new precedent as an openly gay action star. That’s after Luke’s publicist specifically told the interviewer not to bring up Luke’s sexuality.
His response?
It’s good for people to look at me and think this guy is doing his thing and enjoying what he’s doing and successful at it and living his life. And that’s what I’m doing and I’m very happy.
Well, that doesn’t exactly scream gay pride, but it might mark a shift away from explicitly evading his sexuality.
Time magazine seems to think this is some sort of courageous tip-toe out of the closet — a closet they themselves note that Luke has slunk back into since becoming a box office commodity.
They write:
He may not be the gay action hero we want, but he’s the one we have, and one we can only hope grows still more comfortable. In Evans, gay people who’ve spent years trying to grow comfortable in the world can see themselves. He’s undergoing a process that’s often circuitous and halting. In struggling with how to define himself and ending up, for now, in a place of acceptance and the beginnings of openness, the musclebound vampire has never seemed more like an everyman.
Which seems like a pretty weird thing for a major publication to print in the same article in which they quote Luke in a previous interview with The Advocate saying:
“[E]verybody knew me as a gay man, and in my life in London I never tried to hide it.”
It begs the question — once you come out of the closet, can you really go back in? And if you can go back in, do you still deserve praise for tip-toeing your way back out?
We get that Hollywood can be an unwelcoming place for gay people looking to ride to the top of the fame coaster, but if Luke has already come out, what good does it do to crawl back to vague un-acknowledgments?
It’s not as if the Advocate was the only time he spoke about being gay, either.
There’s that time in 2004 when Evans chatted with GaydarNation about his role as a gay porn star in the play Hardcore. And also all these other instances. Here’s a telling snippet:
So, have you spent a long time researching gay porn?
Years and years. I bought my first film when I was 15 and now I have a good collection and I add to it regularly. I research it almost every night!!
What makes a good porn star?
An enormous big fat cock!
Really, queen?
Dan Tracer
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