LUKE EVANS: Realising Who You Are | GREAT MOMENTS

Luke Evans is an actor and singer who began his career on stage. He's since starred in over 40 movies including Beauty and the Beast, Fast and Furious 6 and The Girl on the Train. Luke came on Great Company at the start of last year and his story is just incredible. Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, in a strict religious community, Luke knew his true identity was in conflict with his beliefs. After persistent bullying throughout his schooling, at age 16, he left home, and his new life began. In this Great Moment, Luke discuss his upbringing in Wales, his sexuality and how he seized the opportunities he really wanted. Listen to the full episode HERE! https://open.spotify.com/episode/2fMchhOf2fX16X6KXaVIyF If you enjoyed the show, you can also follow us: Instagram-@greatcompanypodcast https://www.instagram.com/greatcompanypodcast/# TikTok -@greatcompanypodcast https://open.acast.com/networks/611e511b4ec6dc00134bced2/shows/65d737dfdc02e00016c413b2/episodes/www.tiktok.com/@greatcompanypodcast And if you've got thoughts, questions and comments, you can email us at: [email protected] THE CREDITS Producer: Helen Burke Assistant Producer: Issy Weeks-Hankins Video: Josh Bennett Social Media: Laura Coughlan Exec Producer: Ewan Newbigging-Lister & Jemima Rathbone Great Company is an original podcast from JamPot Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:00Jamie Laing?

  Hello, everyone. I'm Jamie Lang, and this is Great Moments.

• 1:07Jamie Laing?

  Hey, everyone. I hope you're well and welcome back to Great Moments. Now, if you're new here, this is the place where I'm going to bring you a standout moment from one of my favorite Great Company conversations. These are the moments that have stayed with me long after the recording, and I hope you can take something away from them. Now, if today's conversation leaves you wanting more, you can find the link to the full episode in the show notes. So, sit back, settle in, and here it is.

• 1:34Jamie Laing?

  I want to talk about the fact that you grew up in Wales.

• 1:40Jamie Laing?

  You, and you've written about this in your book, you were confused with your sexuality, and you also grew up as a Jehovah's Witness.

• 1:47Speaker 05

  Hmm, yeah.

• 1:50Jamie Laing?

  That combination

• 1:51Speaker 05

  Crazy.

• 1:52Jamie Laing?

  is wild.

• 1:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. It's not, um, not the best combination in the world.

• 2:00Speaker 05

  There's law there that would, there's one that says,

• 2:05Speaker 05

  people that will die at Armageddon are murderers, thieves, men who lie with men, you know, things like that. They're in the same, the same paragraph in the Bible. So, as I'm a young kid, you know, realizing firstly, I'm different, not understanding what it is, can't ask anybody because obviously I couldn't. No one around me wasn't a Jehovah's Witness. Then realizing who I was, coming to terms with that, but not being able to tell anyone because every now and again, we'd be in Kingdom Hall and that scripture would be read out loud. And I just felt like, you know, there was a big arrow on my head and, um, so, and, and anybody that doesn't stick to the religion, who is baptized, which I was very young,

• 2:48Speaker 05

  if you don't stick to the rules, you're disfellowshipped and you're cut off and basically, literally cut off. You lose everyone. They completely ignore you like you didn't exist.

• 3:02Speaker 05

  They, their reason for that is that it keeps the congregation clean.

• 3:08Speaker 05

  But I think partly it is also to do with the fact that that person who's been thrown out loses everything they've ever known, their support network, their family, their parents, their brothers and sisters, their friends, that's everything. It's removed from them overnight. And it can damage, it's, I mean, the stories are horrendous. I am very fortunate when I read the stories of some ex-witnesses who've been disfellowshipped and have lost everyone, you know, from marriages breaking up to, uh, problems with, with drugs, employment, depression, confidence, loneliness, and inevitably suicide. Uh, there's, there's too many of these stories.

• 3:52Speaker 05

  So, I'm very lucky in a way that I managed to get out of it the way I did and start a new life. But I was always very sort of like, I remember at 12 years old going, I have to make a plan because I, I know this isn't going to change. I knew at 16 I was going to leave home, and I did. I made a plan and until then I was just going to throw myself into the religion and be the best fucking Jehovah's Witness they'd ever had. So that when I left, they'd be like, oh, God, he was the best one we've ever had. So, I did, I threw myself into the religion. I did everything they wanted me to do. And then I, and then I slowly just distanced myself. And I got to 16 and then I left, left home and started another life.

• 4:37Speaker 05

  And so sadly, the only people I have in my life from before 16 are the non-Jehovah's Witness people, which we didn't know many. All my oldest friends are from 16 onwards, which is very sad.

• 4:50Jamie Laing?

  Your parents, um, man, they just seem to be amazing.

• 4:55Speaker 05

  They are. They really are.

• 4:57Jamie Laing?

  Amazing.

• 4:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:59Jamie Laing?

  And to the point where they were devoted and they didn't. When you decided to leave, they didn't deny you.

• 5:05Speaker 05

  No, I'm not, it was very difficult. It wasn't like, no, we're just going to be in your life. It was not easy.

• 5:15Speaker 05

  It was just not easy. It wasn't something that we could, uh, it was even cloak and dagger for a while, you know, when we would meet. Because they were just like, I don't know, like the CIA or something, just keeping an eye on us all the time.

• 5:30Jamie Laing?

  Are you serious?

• 5:31Speaker 05

  Even when I moved to London, yeah. I was disfellowshipped six years after I left the religion. I thought I'd move to London and get away from it all and not, not bring any reproach. Nobody knew that I'd been a Jehovah's Witness. But yes, it was like six years after, then they disfellowshipped me. And I was like, seriously?

• 5:50Speaker 05

  Up until that time, of course, my parents could keep in touch because there was no disfellowshipping. But after that, it became very, very difficult. So, we've been through a lot and I really admire them. I mean, I, I respect their religion. I respect their beliefs. It's wonderful that they found something when they were teenagers that's brought them a lot of happiness. But it wasn't my choice. I didn't get a choice. And of course, who I am, you know, deep down, is not something that their religion was, that was, I was born into, accepts. So, I didn't really have a choice whether I wanted to be a witness or not. And because of who I am, I lost everyone except my mom and dad. They have managed to find a way where they love their God,

• 6:33Speaker 05

  they love their religion, they respect what they do. But they also have a child who they love and cherish, as do I them. Why on earth would it feel right to disown him? I've never questioned their beliefs. I never want to. I'm very happy for them. It just took some, some trust, understanding, patience, and just acceptance of each other. And they're great. I think they're such a, they're such a good example of what a Jehovah's Witness could be like if they just let them.

• 7:10Jamie Laing?

  There's an amazing thing which I wrote, which I, I want to read. I read this and it made me tear up because you, um, you've supported your parents in lots of ways. You bought the house next to them. You, they rented out, so they got money and all these different things. And, um, your dad gave a speech.

• 7:32Jamie Laing?

  And he said this, um, "When I got sick, who put petrol in the car? Who paid for the electricity? Who paid for the food in the fridge? Was it you? No, it was our son."

• 7:48Jamie Laing?

  "Don't come to our house and tell us not to speak to our son because if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have this house."

• 7:56Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 7:57Jamie Laing?

  And it's unbelievable.

• 8:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:03Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's, it's very hard to even talk about it because it's, it's a very emotional thing that, you know, he said those words and they came from the heart and, and they're true, you know. I've, I've always supported them and made sure they're safe, usually before myself, and, and they're, they're good. They're my priority in life to, to make sure they're, they're happy and safe and, you know, need for nothing, want for nothing. So, it was, yeah, it was a nice thing that he said that. Obviously, not a pleasant thing he'd had to say to the people that he's, you know, supposed to spend forever on paradise on earth with. But, you know, he put it straight.

• 8:46Speaker 05

  He said it straight and, and he's right.

• 8:49Jamie Laing?

  Yeah.

• 8:49Speaker 05

  Damn it.

• 8:50Jamie Laing?

  Like, yeah.

• 8:50Speaker 05

  Of course he's right.

• 8:51Jamie Laing?

  Of course he's fucking right.

• 8:52Speaker 05

  How dare you tell, nobody has the right to tell somebody else not to talk to the, their flesh and blood.

• 9:02Jamie Laing?

  I know.

• 9:02Speaker 05

  That's your choice whether you do that. Nobody, it's insane.

• 9:06Jamie Laing?

  It's the personification of love, which is unbelievable. I always got told something, which is where if you, if you, if your parents show, if your parents show you love, you know how to be loved yourself. And what is amazing as well is that when you were bullied at school, you kind of always said, well, there's something wrong with the bullies because you were loved so much, you knew you were okay. You, you felt almost enough, maybe, that you could sort of get through it.

• 9:31Speaker 05

  I somehow knew that it was, I used to say, and I don't know how, because I didn't have anyone to talk to about the bully, the words that they used to call me, right? It was horrible.

• 9:40Jamie Laing?

  What were they, what were they calling you?

• 9:41Speaker 05

  Bender, shirtlifter, jovie bender, which is like the amalgam of the two things, which could never be together, you know? It's like, I used to say to myself at that young age, this is only temporary. One, at some point, you are going to be able to leave school and something else will change.

• 10:02Speaker 05

  And I, I mean, I did have moments as a child wondering why they chose me instead of the other boy in the school, in the classroom, why always me? I questioned a lot about myself. But there was a point when I just thought, well, whatever it is, I don't care because as soon as I leave school, I'm never going to see these people again. I'm going to leave, you know? I couldn't run out of those school gates quicker.

• 10:25Jamie Laing?

  But that is unique because as kids, right, we're learning, right? I, I truly think that the reason why, um, when we're kids, everything happens so much slower is because we're experiencing a first kiss or like going on a first holiday or experiencing snow for the, you're experiencing these for the first time. And now, when we go through joy or suffering or whatever it is, we kind of know it's going to pass. That's why I love the quote, "This too shall pass," because everything does pass. When you're younger in that moment, you don't know it's going to finish.

• 10:55Speaker 05

  No.

• 10:56Jamie Laing?

  You have no idea.

• 10:57Speaker 05

  First time.

• 10:57Jamie Laing?

  First time experiencing it. So, how did you have that confidence that you were like, this is only temporary? Was your, is that from your religion that you realized that suffering was only temporary? Or you just, that's blind confidence?

• 11:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, blind confidence. And.

• 11:16Speaker 05

  I think, I mean, what should have been the case is that I would have felt that I could have just talked to my mum and dad. I didn't have brothers and sisters. I should have felt that I could just talk to them. But the religion very clearly dictated that what I had a problem with, I couldn't talk to them about, or anybody. So I had to rely only on my own voice, my own words, my own inner therapist, you know. And somehow I came up with that, that it's only temporary. I honestly still, I'm amazed that I could compartmentalize the situation that I was

• 11:57Speaker 05

  under, you know, dealing with at that time. I know that there was a, there was a bigger world outside. I also knew about London. I mean, I knew that, you know, we used to have a family that lived in Hemel Hempstead, and we, another Jehovah's Witness family, and we'd go and visit them. And we'd get on the train at St Albans, and then we'd turn it, turn the underground, and then you'd go in the tunnels, and then you'd come up the staircase at Piccadilly Circus, and I'd be like, what is this place? I remember being like nine and going, why is this place? Look, and look at all the different, like, signs of people, and the noise, and the lights, and all walks of life, literally walking, like, you see most people in ten minutes than I'd seen a year in Abercrombie, you know? And not a sheep inside.

• 12:45Speaker 05

  And, and I remember going, everybody else is, like, you know, talking about getting to Madame Two Swords, and I'm going, look at that person, and look at this person. I'm thinking, I'm gonna live here one day. And then you'd go back to Abercrombie, and then a few years would go by, and we'd go down again, and then we started to go to see musicals. Me and my mum, we'd come on the bus. We'd get on a bus at like five thirty from Abercrombie, and you'd arrive in London at like eleven thirty for the matinee performance. And me and my mum, we'd just like walk the streets of London. And then I used to come, it's in the book, there's one story, I used to then come with one of the women, women from the village, I was fourteen. And basically, of course, I loved the musicals. My excitement was that I had this hour from when you get off

• 13:27Speaker 05

  the bus, to you had to be at the theatre to watch the show. And I had a plan, I was gonna find Soho, and I was just gonna sit and watch all the life of what was then the gay centre of London. And that's what I did. So I knew during all this time that there was a bigger world, a bigger life. Whether it could have been mine, I don't know, but I thought, I know there's more than this shitty little school with these nasty little fuckers all around me, and this little village. I know. And I just, that's what kept me going. And sure enough, at sixteen, I somehow moved to Cardiff, and then I met these amazing people that said, if you get into a college, we'll pay

• 14:07Speaker 05

  for you to go. And I got in. So at seventeen, arriving the day Diana died in London, can you imagine? I arrived in this city that I was already familiar with, but now it wasn't some of the place I was visiting, it was gonna be my home. And that's when, you know, and so these little bits of hope, I mean, my message really is, you know, even in your darkest moments, if you can just hang on to something that's outside of that darkness, something like, there is a better, there's a better idea here somewhere, just, I just need to get through this. It's temporary. This will pass, this too shall pass. It's very easy to say that when you're not in a dark place. I'm very aware of what I'm saying is like, great, it's easy for you to say, because

• 14:49Speaker 05

  you're not there. But, you know, that inner voice, sometimes is the only voice you can hear. And I've had to use my inner voice and, and train it to be the one that helps me, not the one that diminishes me and, and inhibits me and causes me more drama. I, I, I'm trying to make that the better voice inside me that helps me, carry me through something, you know? You've got to be really savvy and understand opportunities, and don't keep thinking, I'll do, I'll take the next one. I think you should always grasp things. If you can, you should. Even if you fail, even if it doesn't work out, opportunities are valuable in life. Sometimes

• 15:31Speaker 05

  they're small opportunities, you know? Sometimes they're huge and you don't even know it. Um, opportunities can literally change the trajectory of your life. I wrote a card to a casting director once, um, in the West End for a play. I'd never done a play, only musicals. And this play was about two Welsh boys. It was at the Donmar Warehouse, which is sort of like the Nirvana of, of theatres and, you know, Nicole Kidman does a show there. I couldn't get seen. So I personally wrote a letter to the casting director, and I thought, what have I got to lose? And she phoned me back. I went in, three weeks later, I got one of those lead roles, and that was the play that changed my whole career. A year later, I was in my first movie. I just did my forty-six

• 16:16Speaker 05

  film, fifteen years later, because I wrote a card. Opportunities, look for them, don't take them for granted, just take them by the horns and just go with it.

• 16:28Jamie Laing?

  That's epic. I, so I sat with someone recently who said, um, you can't just think you're good. Because lots of people are good, and lots of people go, it's unfair, I'm so good at what I do. That's not good enough. You have to put yourself out there. You have to show people your talent. You have to show that you're good. Write letters, get on doorsteps, knock on doors, do anything. Because otherwise, you, you, people, people don't know you're good if they don't, can't see it.

• 16:53Speaker 05

  No, exactly right. Yeah, it's the same with, with, you know, when you, you, I have a film coming out, you know? When we have a film, when I have a film coming out, I have to go sell it. I have to, you know, press junkets, podcasts, interviews, you know, travel the world, do red carpet. You, you put the effort in, because it's your product and you want people to see it. But you have to make the effort to make people aware of it. And I think it's the same with personal things, like, you know, if you, if you've got something to show, then put it out there. And, and, and, you know, be your own spokesperson. The best spokesperson you'll ever have is yourself.

• 17:48Speaker 00

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