Comic Lee Evans: I’ll never go back to Hollywood, it was like a nightmare

 
11 September 2013
The Weekender

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Comedian Lee Evans has turned his back on Hollywood after landing his dream role in the West End.

Evans, 49, is still offered movie scripts after a successful spell which included his acclaimed appearance in 1998’s There’s Something About Mary, but he says he can no longer bear being away from his family.

He began previews this week alongside Keeley Hawes and Sheila Hancock in the West End comedy Barking In Essex, in which they play a dysfunctional crime family.

He told the Standard: “I will never go back to Hollywood. It was like a nightmare. I enjoyed it at the time, but I wanted to be back with my family — I love them! They keep asking me to do a film, but you just spend six months in a remote place living in a caravan.”

Evans, married to his wife Heather for 28 years, has always suffered from stage nerves and confessed he still does not consider himself an actor. He added: “I’m an idiot. I’m not an actor. I’m just Lee. I don’t even consider myself a comedian. I’m learning something new every day by working with these great people. I can’t believe that I’m here in the West End with my name in lights outside the theatre. I still get extremely nervous.

“Me and the missus have come a long way since our first flat in Southend. When I first came to London I looked in the Standard for a job. I went from there to Hollywood, and now I’m in the West End. I always dreamed about that.”

Evans channels his nervous energy into several projects at a time, and is currently writing material for his next stand-up tour, Monsters, in between rehearsals for the play. He said: “I’m usually working on about three things at a time — I can’t help it. It makes my wife really angry, but I can’t stop. I wouldn’t know what to do if I stopped. I also paint — painting is my release. I’ve got a shed in the garden where I play really loud music and paint. It’s pretty weird stuff, quite abstract, and if you saw it you’d probably say ‘Are you all right?’”

Despite amassing a fortune — he earned £12.9m in 2011 from live shows and DVDs — he insists he gets by on just £50 a week. “My worst vice is chewing gum. I don’t drink or smoke so £50 is all I need”, he said.

Barking In Essex opens at Wyndham’s Theatre on September 16. barkinginessex.co.uk

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