Welsh actor Luke Evans has spoken candidly about his mental health struggles as a teenager, revealing that he contemplated suicide before coming out as gay.
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Evans, known for his roles in Beauty and the Beast and the Fast & Furious franchise, was raised in a strict Jehovah’s Witness household — a religion that rejects homosexuality. In a heartfelt conversation on Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend show, the actor described feeling profoundly isolated during his formative years. “I felt very isolated,” he told Hammond. “I had no-one to talk to.”
The episode, which aired on Friday 30 May on the BBC, featured Hammond spending 48 hours with Evans in his hometown in Wales. During the visit to his childhood home — where his parents still reside — Evans reflected on his upbringing, revealing he was bullied at school and lacked self-confidence.
“All my friends were Jehovah’s Witnesses,” he said. “I didn’t speak to anyone until I was 14. I went to a psychologist because I wanted to ask them… I had no-one to talk to. She offered me a 14-week course at £200 a session, and I said, ‘No, no, no — I need help today.’ She replied, ‘Well, I can’t help you.’”
Evans explained that from a young age he knew he was different. “I didn’t know I was gay, but I knew I was different from seven, eight, nine — very young,” he said. “I didn’t have anyone outside of the religion to confide in or ask what was wrong. I’d been baptised in the religion and that meant that if I chose to be openly gay, I would be cut off from everyone and everything I knew. It was very complicated and very confusing.”
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When Hammond asked whether he had ever been in a “dark place”, Evans responded: “Oh yeah… in my teenage years. I was clear in my mind who I was and I had no-one to talk to. It was a very difficult place to be. I contemplated suicide. Not a nice place to be — especially at that young age.”
Despite the hardship, the actor said that something held him back. Evans has previously shared that he came out to his parents at the age of 19. “I guess something stopped me,” he said.
