Amon Warmann chats with Beauty and the Beast star Luke Evans…
While ‘Tale as Old as Time’ may be the most well-known song in Beauty and the Beast, the musical number for the Gaston is arguably even more beloved. Finding an actor who could not only do justice to that iconic song but also embody the villain’s worst qualities could’ve been tricky, but Luke Evans is perfectly cast as Belle’s would-be suitor.
In addition to detailing just how much rehearsal went into that standout musical number, the 15 year veteran also regaled us with anecdotes of ad-libbing with Josh Gad and having fun with his makeup artist while in character. Have a read below…
How does it feel when they ask you to be the asshole in a movie?
A very charismatic, charming asshole! Well by that point I had already auditioned twice so I was ready for the phone call if it happened. I was very excited about playing Gaston. I think I had the opportunity to bring a human face to an animated, well-loved character and give this man a sense of likeability. You sort of get that in the animation but hopefully you see that there’s a humanity to him even if he’s an idiot.
By the end of the film he’s mean, but he needs to be mean. You don’t just go off and kill someone. You need to put yourself in a strange mindset to even think of doing that. And not just do it on your own, but rally a whole crowd of villagers to come with you and commit this terrible act. He’s a dangerous creature. He turns into the scary creature in the film, and I think why he’s such a success as a character is because he’s so charming and he’s good-looking and he’s got big muscles and his hair is big… he doesn’t represent the villain that most people think of. You think of Jafar or Scar from The Lion King. You don’t think that of Gaston when you look at him but he turns into this monster and I saw that as a challenge as an actor when bringing him to human form to portray the whole colour of that arc throughout the film.
We just spoke with director Bill Condon about Gaston being the major difference between this film and the animation…
There’s a lot of similarities between this version and the classic animation. Gaston starts off as this likeable idiot who people can laugh at, but he’s harmless enough. To become this sinister, monster of a man by the end of the film, was a real challenge. The physicality of Gaston was going to be different because nobody looks like that in real life, so that was the biggest difference. I realised that I had to supplement that size with something else and it came from the personality. Some of the lines he has are just ridiculous. [laughs]
Do you think reading might be out of fashion in today’s smartphone era?
I read all the time. From the news, to books, to scripts. I feel like scripts are mini-novels when they’re good. I also listen to audiobooks when I’m running or if I’m training. It’s the only way you can free yourself from what you know. It’s knowledge, and whether it’s fictional or not it’s a way to broaden your horizons.
Do you remember the first time you saw the classic animation?
Yes! I was 12, it was 1991, I was with my Mum in a little village in South Wales and we went to the local town to watch it in the local cinema. When you come from a little town that’s quite dark and miserable looking, going to watch something in a cinema was an exciting moment because you were seeing a world which was created by these Disney animators.
You mentioned a couple of villains earlier. When you were watching films as a kid, did you like the bad guys?
No! [Laughs] It’s a strange thing how I’ve crafted this career. I’ve played very well known bad guys, but I’ve played a couple of good heroes as well. I see the challenge playing both. For me, there’s one brain for a villain and one brain for a good guy. They don’t really cross over and you have to think differently. But being bad means you can do and say a lot of things that you wouldn’t necessarily say so it’s quite liberating in a way, as long as you’re able to switch it off at the end of the day.
There’s a very funny thing; the final time I took my wig off as Gaston I remember looking in the mirror with my makeup artist, and we used to have a lot of fun. She used to treat me like Gaston when the wig was on and I sort of became him for the day. And I remember taking it off and I remember her saying “OK, say goodbye to Gaston”, and I took it off and went “Hello, darling!!” And she went “Oh God, he’s not left, he’s still here!” [laughs]
Do you think we’re in the midst of a movie musical resurgence?
Well Disney are about to do Aladdin and The Lion King. But maybe this is a new generation and a new golden age for musicals. This is the first live action, family musical there’s been in decades. We’ve got La La Land and Les Miserables but they’re not really for children, whereas this is a family musical. I was speaking with Josh [Gad] the other day, and for his two girls this will be their first venture to the cinema to see a live action, fully fledged, massive musical, which is wonderful. Maybe it will inspire writers and lyricists and magical duos like Ashman and Menken to start writing new stories.
Gaston has one of the biggest musical numbers in the film…
It’s THE biggest musical number! It was great. We started rehearsing this early 2015. I come from a musical theatre background – I did 10 shows in the West End and on tour in the UK – and the choreographer which they brought in has done some big West End shows and films. His name is Anthony Van Laast and he actually was a guest choreographer when I was 17 in college, so that was a nice feeling – he taught me when I was 17, and 20 years later he’s teaching me as one of the leading characters in this film, and I was able to remind myself of how to create a character physically. All the movement was set, and then he said “if there’s anything you want to bring to it yourself let me know”. It only took about 20 minutes until I was saying “maybe as I come up to this table I’ll take this drink from somebody and then somebody else comes around and I drop it into LeFou’s hand…” These were my ideas and if you watch that sequence you’ll see exactly that. It was really nice to add flairs to choreography like that.
It took months; First of all we had to create the choreography then we had to sing on top of that choreography, and then we had to think about cameras, angles, everybody else involved in that routine… and that was before even getting to set. It was never boring, and we were never alone – there was always about 50 of us – but it was a lot of fun.
What was it like working with Josh Gad?
It was wonderful. Josh comes from a comedy base – he’s naturally very funny. He’s the light of the room. A lot of the humour that came from our characters was quite spontaneous. Bill [Condon] was very aware that the funniest moments sometimes happen in the moment, and I think with humour that is very much the case. You also have to understand timing, and because Josh and I are both from theatre, the third member of the cast is always the audience and you have to be aware of them and how long they take to react to something, especially when it comes to dropping a joke. For a joke to land correctly there has to be a certain tempo. Some people have it and others don’t, some people get taught it and others never manage to achieve it. With us it happened quite naturally – a lot of the time it was ad-libbed – and we just had to trust our own instincts. The cart scene when we were in the forest – we made up almost all of that dialogue that night.
As a boy you wanted to sing, so how did you get into acting?
I started to have singing lessons, and my singing teacher knew that I had a good voice. She realised that for me to be able to progress I had to learn to emote dramatically through singing. If you watch a good musical, when someone is singing it’s like they’re talking to you but there’s music and the music just triples the effect of what they’re telling you. You look at Adele, and when she sings those song sometimes you see it in her eyes that this song means something to her and she’s relaying that emotion and her story through the music and through her vocal. So the ability as an actor who can sing a story is to use your voice but ensure that it doesn’t take over the story or the dramatic effect.
That’s how I started and then she sent me for an audition at a college in London and I won it, and then at 17 I was here. And for 3 years I learnt singing, acting, and dancing, and that’s when I realised I was able to do this for a living because I’d learnt how to emote through music.
Amon Warmann: As you alluded to earlier, there are changes made to Gaston which add to his backstory in interesting ways. Is there any other character you’ve played previously that you’d like to return to so that you could learn more about their backstory?
I’d love to see what happens to Bard the Bowman after they conquer Erebor. He’s only in his late 30’s and his son becomes King of Dale. It’d be such a lovely thing to see the rebuilding of Dale and how that relationship between the Dwarves – who are just across the valley – and the humans existed. It’s a great tale of how a man who’s a lowly man becomes a leader from basically putting his children first and wanting them to survive this terrible moment in their lives. And his son becomes King of Dale and is talked about 90 years later in the first episode of Lord of the Rings. We’re missing 90 years so come on, there’s got to be something there.
Amon Warmann: Let’s call Peter Jackson right now and make this happen…
I send him messages all the time!
SEE ALSO: Be sure to read our interviews with director Bill Condon, composer Alan Menken and stars Emma Watson and Dan Stevens
Amon Warmann
