'Girl on the Train' Star Luke Evans Pulls a Ben Affleck in New Thriller's Shower Scene
[SPOILERS: Do not read this interview if you have yet to see the movie.]
In "The Girl on the Train," Luke Evans plays an overly-possessive husband who becomes a key suspect when his wife [Haley Bennett] goes missing. And from there, things go to a very plot-twisty place, rather quickly.
Evans rang up Moviefone to discuss his potentially infamous shower scene in the movie and what it's like to play the bad guy.
Moviefone:Did you base your characterization on any real person who's been suspected of doing away with their wife, like Scott Peterson?
Luke Evans: No, I didn't base it on anybody specifically, but I did do research into real-life situations where a loved one has disappeared or gone missing -- and you find they've been murdered and then everybody's a suspect and the family are taken in for questioning. That happens quite often around the world, you see it in the news all the time. So that was interesting stuff for me to do some research on.
What kind of research did you do? Watching news footage of specific cases?
Yeah, exactly. I watched news footage and some documentaries on the ones I knew of in the U.K. There was one very famous one of a family who'd lost their daughter and they were for a while suspected of maybe being the reason for her going missing, but obviously they weren't in the end.
My next question is about your shower scene. It's not quite as revealing as Ben Affleck's in "Gone Girl," but still, did that give you pause?
You're right, it's not as revealing as Ben's, but it was revealing enough for me, thank you very much. But I think it was important because you realize that Megan and Scott don't actually speak to each other in the whole film. Everything is just told visually. There was a lot that needed to be presented to the audience so they got a well-rounded idea of the relationship and it wasn't just an argumentative, tempestuous relationship. There was much more to it as well. They were passionate as well as extremely volatile.
So is it more awkward being naked with someone else in a movie than just being naked by yourself?
It can be very awkward, but Haley Bennett's a professional. She's a trouper. She threw herself into it, and so did I, and we knew we just had to get on and do this. You have to be committed to something like that, otherwise, the second you think it's ridiculous -– which, obviously, it is ridiculous when you think about it –- it becomes very uncomfortable. Tate Taylor, the director, was fantastic. We actually got quite drunk the first time we had to do it, just to take away the nerves, which is quite funny. So we were quite tipsy by the time we got to do the scene. [Laughs]
You also played a not very nice guy earlier this year in "High-Rise." Is it more fun to play villains?
No one is very nice in that film. No one's quintessentially, perfectly nice, they always have a flaw so I think that even with bad, nasty characters, they can't always be nasty. How did they get to that place? I like to think that through so you get a full-rounded idea of a human being and not just a monster.
Would you prefer to make more thrillers or more musicals?
I'd like to do more comedy! I like smiling and laughing. I like making people laugh. I got a bit of a bug when I did the Gaston character, it was so much fun, so I wouldn't mind trying a bit more of that.
Do you have a dream comedy role?
Anything that Melissa McCarthy is in, I'd like to do, because I think she's absolutely hilarious.
"Girl on the Train" hits theaters Friday.