Luke Evans has always wanted to be in a family movie.
Luke Evans
The 37-year-old actor is usually cast in "intense, dark and heavy roles" in the likes of 'Fast & Furious 6', 'Dracula Untold' and 'Girl on the Train', so was delighted to be offered the role of villainous Gaston in 'Beauty and the Beast' because it's a film his young relatives can watch.
He said: "I've always wanted to do a family film because I have a lot of children and god-children in my family, and they don't get a chance to see my movies. This is a film they finally can come to watch."
Luke was a big fan of the original Disney animation and thinks the music of the film is it's best point.
He told The New Paper: "I loved the original film. I was 12 years old when the animation came out. I was from a little village in South Wales.
My mum and I went to the cinema to watch it, and I remembered coming out of the cinema already humming the tunes.
"The music is very special and captivating, and the movie transports you to a different place, and that's the magic of Disney."
And the hunky actor - who began his career on stage - was overwhelmed with the response to his own musical number when the film was screened at its London premiere last month.
He recalled: "We had a screening at London's Odeon Leicester Square, and about 3,000 people turned up for it. When we got to the end of Gaston's song, everyone clapped like it was a theatrical performance.
"It was such a great feeling that people connected with the film... that was the first applause of many throughout the [screening].
"I never experienced that before. It was very special."
And Luke admitted starring in a movie musical is a dream come true.
He said: "I've been waiting for quite a long time to finally have an opportunity to do that."
And the big challenge for the actor was making his character not completely unlikable all the way through the film.
He said: "[Gaston] is quite an unlikable character, and he's not a nice person.
"So my challenge was to make people like him a little bit at the beginning of the film, and then see the kind of monster he turns into at the end... I don't want people to hate him right from the start. I want people to laugh at him."
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