Luke Evans Interview

Born and raised in South Wales, Luke Evans made the leap from West End musicals to Hollywood blockbusters with his 2010 appearance in Clash of the Titans, and has gone on to land leading roles in The Three Musketeers, the Fast & Furious franchise and Disney’s live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.

I miss Aberbargoed – my family still live there and I speak with them nearly every day, but I like to go back as often as I can. It’s a chance to relax with old friends, walk the dog and go to the pub with my cousin. The place looks nothing like it did when I was younger, though. There are some dramatic changes going on in the valleys of South Wales. Whenever I’m there, there seem to be plush new buildings – and new roads, too. A few times, I’ve got hopelessly lost and had to pull over to ask people for directions.

I wouldn’t call myself a petrolhead, but give me a nippy sports car and a day to spend driving down through Wales and I’ll be happy. A few years ago, I followed the A470, (also called The Cambrian Way) all the way from Llandudno on the north coast to Cardiff in the south. The part that goes through Snowdonia is amazing. 

We’d go on holiday to Saundersfoot, in Pembrokeshire, with my cousin and his family, and stay in a caravan. I’ve got so many fond memories of Tenby town centre, the harbour with the row of houses painted in a palette of pastel colours, and the boats bobbing around on the water. Today you can find all sorts of sophisticated cuisine around there, but we’d have chips straight out of the paper by the quayside – and cockles from Penclawdd, which food writers now rave about as a delicacy. We’d sometimes go night fishing ourselves, but we spent more time losing our wellington boots in the sand than catching anything.

I’ll always love Barafundle Bay in Pembrokeshire, and not only because I like saying 'Barafundle', which is a magnificent word. It’s a perfect, private little beach, hemmed in by sand dunes and pine trees, where you can take the dogs and make as much noise as you want. Then there’s Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula. It’s as epic as it sounds, with a ruined castle and wooded valley at the top. My third choice is Tresaith, near Cardigan. When you’re walking the Wales Coast Path, this fantastic beach comes into view below you, and you can’t resist making a detour to get the sand between your toes – and then nip in to the Ship Inn!