5 Facts About Immortals Star Luke Evans

Of course Henry Cavill was incredibly hot as peasant warrior Theseus in Immortals, but we’ve also got to give some praise to Luke Evans, the up-and-coming actor who portrayed Greek god Zeus with a mixture of stubborn will and tenderness.

We won’t give away too much about the movie — which definitely produces some theories about the gods alternate to what I remember from school — but his Zeus is an integral part to both the mortal and immortal battles. Here are five things you should know about Luke Evans.

1. Immortals marks a rise in the ranks for Luke in terms of playing Greek gods. When last we checked in with him in 2010, he was playing Apollo in Clash of the Titans. But seeing as Zeus is the father of almost all of the Greek pantheon, the new role is pretty all-powerful.

2. We’ll help you out—he closely resembles both James McAvoy and Orlando Bloom. (It kept tripping me up during the movie.) In terms of six degrees of separation, he’s well-linked to Orlando: The two appeared in The Three Musketeers, and just as Orlando is reprising his role of Legolas for The Hobbit, Luke will be taking his first step into J.R.R. Tolkien‘s (and Peter Jackson‘s) universe.

3. He’s got a good set of pipes, which have been put to use on many an American musical: From 2000-2008, he starred in West End productions of Rent (he played Roger), Avenue Q, and Miss Saigon. But he got his big break in the Boy George musical Taboo in 2002, where he plays the totally straight object of Boy George’s affections. You’ll see why this is ironic in a moment.[tagbox tag="immortals"]

4. He’s the rare actor who’s incredibly upfront about his sexuality—even when it’s very nontraditional. At the tender age of 23, he was clearly out while working in the London theater scene. As he told queer publication The Advocate, closeted stars often get found out in ugly ways: “Y’know, you start a slippery slope downward, and I didn’t want to start that at 22. If that means I’m going to be a poor man at 60, then at least I’ve lived a happy, open, gay life and not had to hide it from anybody.”

However, most recently he’s been linked to a female marketing expert from the fashion industry, named Holly Goodchild. “Luke’s lovely,” she told a Wales site in 2010. “We’re really old friends and it just sort of happened. We are nowhere near engaged but things are really good.”

5. Luke’s first film audition came when he was 30 years old; interestingly, it was for Clash of the Titans. In the two years since then, he’s starred in a bevy of films — indies to period dramas — and his film career doesn’t seem to be letting up.