In the early days of his career, Luke Evans was seen primarily as a music theater actor, and as such, he felt pretty open in coming out publicly in interviews. When Hollywood came calling, Luke seemingly jumped back into the closet, except… it was more nuanced than that. Luke never flat-out denied being gay, he just hired a publicist who tried to strong-arm journalists into not asking any questions about Luke’s sexuality. And when he was asked personal questions about what he was looking for in a partner, Luke was pointedly vague, refusing to use even gendered pronouns. My take is that part of it is legitimately “stay in the glass closet, dude” but another part of it is just discomfort with talking about any part of his personal life. I don’t know. Anyway, Luke has a piece in the latest issue of Mr. Porter where he’s once again keeping it vague about his personal life. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

He enjoys working on action movies: “Stabbing someone in the chest, tumbling to miss a bomb, or whatever it is, you have to hit your mark every single time. You have to remember a sequence of movements and have accuracy, consistency, and replication. Fight choreography is dance. And I can dance.”

Singing for the live-action Beauty And The Beast (he plays Gaston): “[My vocal cords are] made of well-used leather. They’ve never been out of use for long, in fact. It’s just that, as Gaston, I got to sing more often, and in front of people, instead of on my own in my living room.”

Talking about his sexuality: “If somebody talks to me about my personal life, well, the clue is in the title: it’s personal, it’s private. I’m protecting myself, not because it’s anything that I’m embarrassed about, but because it’s mine.”

The future: Five years from now, Mr Evans muses, he’d like to be living in a warmer climate. Somewhere by the sea, ideally, and wouldn’t it be nice to feel settled enough in one place to have a dog? “There’s this unconditional love, no questions asked,” he explains. He knows exactly which dog he wants. Not the breed – the individual. “I fell in love with someone’s dog once, and I sort of want that dog. Not another dog – that one,” he says.

He’s single, gentlemen: He is currently single, and while this lasts, he’s treating it as an opportunity for “finding contentment with myself, and not relying on anybody else to validate it”. He adds, “I think being an only child has hindered that slightly, because I’ve always wanted to be around other people.”

[From Mr. Porter]

Only children have such strange take-aways from their only-childness, I’ve found. I’m an only child too, and for me, it meant that even when I was very young, I was very comfortable around adults and being spoken to like an adult. It means that I’m happiest when I’m alone with my own thoughts too. But other only-children are like Luke: needy, almost? Needing to be surrounded by people, to fill that void. It’s strange to me. As for what he says about his private life… eh. I give him credit for not lying and not denying. He’s a 37 year old man and who he bangs is his business. He doesn’t owe us an explanation.

Photos courtesy of Mr. Porter.