Luke Evans wanted his ‘Beauty And The Beast’ villain to be a good guy at first.
The 37-year-old actor – who plays Gaston in the live-action movie – was keen for the audience to like his character at first because he thinks that makes a better villain in the finish.
He said: ”I just think that a villain shouldn’t start out as the bad guy. A villain should end up being the bad guy. And with Gaston, outwardly to a lot of people in that village, he is the hero. He’s a bit of a stud.
”He’s got the hair and the looks, he’s always impeccably dressed, and he’s got not a bad singing voice. He’s got a great pal that makes everybody support him and sing about him. So, I just thought, ‘Let’s make them like him, a little bit first, so that when the cracks start to appear, which they very subtly do, there’s something inside of him that shows he’s not used to things going like this, and that this is not what she’s supposed to be doing.”’
Evans was keen to play on the ”humanity” of the character and admits it was a little scary when he realised what an ”animalistic soldier” Gaston was.
He added to Collider.com: ”And although he keeps believing that Belle will change her mind, that’s where the cracks appear. Slowly, the jealousy takes over. He has no book of spells. He has no magic powers. He’s a human being, and he uses his status within that village to rouse a crowd, but he does it all from just being himself, which is quite terrifying.
”So I played on the humanity of the character. He is larger than life. There was a lot to pull on. He was a war hero, of sorts. His murals are all over the pub that he drinks in. There is this animalistic soldier in him, when he finally fights the Beast on the rooftops. You see this man who’s out for blood, and it’s a scary moment to see the arc of somebody who was the loveable buffoon of the village becoming the monster.”
