But in ITV's The Party, adapted from Elizabeth Day's 2017 novel of the same name, Evans could see part of himself in Martin Gilmour, a political journalist who finds himself at the centre of the story when he's caught up in a shooting.
"Where were you at the time of the shooting?" a detective quizzes Martin, whose shirt is covered in blood, as devastating secrets from his and Ben's shared past threaten to spill into the open.
Unlike Ben, who is part of the landed gentry, Martin was a scholarship boy raised in South Wales (a change from the book, in which he's English) by his religious mother, a nurse. His father, a carpenter, died when he was ten.
Evans, too, was born in the south of Wales – Pontypool, to be exact. He grew up in the village of Aberbargoed to a housewife and part-time cleaner mother and a bricklayer father, who raised him as a Jehovah's Witness.
"Those early transitions from being an only child and a religious upbringing, and then a small village in Wales, and then going to the big city for me, him going to private school and getting a scholarship, and being dropped into a world that you don't know, with people speaking in a different way than you.
"I just seemed to be so far behind. I remember for the first few months feeling like I was playing catch-up, like I had missed something. And of course Martin feels the same when he goes to school. He doesn't have the money. He certainly doesn't arrive with a beautiful Louis Vuitton case.
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Luke Evans reveals how growing up gay in a small Welsh village helped prepare him for The Party roleThe Party author Elizabeth Day: "Thank goodness Luke Evans is gay, otherwise I would have to leave my husband for him""That's something I admire in Martin. If you get an opportunity, and you're clever, you don't turn your nose up at it. You go, 'This may never come around again.' Especially if you're working class.
"So he stays a bit quiet, he observes, and finally finds his feet. And obviously, Ben takes him under his wing and opens his eyes to a bigger world."
Evans has spoken at length in interviews and in his memoir, Boy from the Valleys: My Unexpected Journey, about being bullied at school because of his sexuality and religion.
"As a kid, I couldn't talk about it because I was a Jehovah's Witness, so that was impossible and I had to leave home at 16 to be myself."
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"That's where the parallels die for me and Martin," added Evans, who came out to his parents when he was 19, and chose to be open about his sexuality early in his career, despite the challenges.
There's an intimate and haunting scene in The Party when Ben's sister tells Martin, who is in love with her brother: "Denying who you are, kills you in the end."
"I did it at quite a young age and I did find my people, I found new friends and family," he said. "But some people don't do it at that young age... and it can damage you. It's not necessarily going to kill you, but it can definitely damage you.
"I've just played Dr Frank-N-Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show [on Broadway] and his famous line is, 'Don't dream it, be it.' Don't dream about what you want, become what you want.
The Party is on ITV1 at 9pm on Sunday 11 October 2026 and will be available to stream on ITVX.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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