The series stars Evans and Michiel Huisman as military men trying to free a kidnapped loved one in South America
When people ask him what his white-knuckle thriller Echo 3 is about, series star Luke Evans has to pause for a beat to consider how he wants to sell the tense action-drama.
“It really depends who’s asking,” the Welsh-born actor says in a recent video call from New York City. “Generally, I’m telling people that this is about the family you choose, and what you’ll do for that family when you find out things about them that may be difficult to accept or deal with.”
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Sounds fair enough, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg in the taut drama created by two-time Oscar winner Mark Boal, who wrote and produced The Hurt Locker (2008), and Zero Dark Thirty (2011), and adapted from the 2018 Israeli program, When Heroes Fly.
In the gritty 10-episode series, now streaming on Apple TV+, Evans, 43, plays Bambi, a military man who embarks on a rescue mission with his brother-in-law (played by Game of Thrones’ Michiel Huisman) after his sister (Jessie Collins) goes missing near the Colombia-Venezuela border.
“The backdrop of the story is Colombia, this incredible country. Add to that the geopolitical situation there and a hostage-taking situation and you’re set for a tense story that grabs you and hooks you in and keeps you watching,” Evans says of the real-world intrigue that is threaded into Echo 3’s propulsive storyline.
Always in shape, Evans, as documented on his popular Instagram page, took seriously his training to play a member of a U.S. army elite combat unit.
“I love staying fit, but this was full on,” says Evans, who was last seen playing the evil Coachman in Disney’s recent live-action Pinocchio remake. “The training started months in advance before I got the job. Sometimes it was in a classroom with ex-Navy SEALs telling us everything there was to know about a rifle. Tactical manoeuvres and understanding the jargon was part of it as well; understanding how those Delta Force soldiers speak. There was a lot we were absorbing in a quick period of time. But I didn’t stop learning the whole time. There was something I was learning on each episode and how this man would deal with the situation and what his process for handling that would be like. It was a lot to take in. But I love all that.”
Along with Echo 3, which recently wrapped its first season, Evans just released his second album, A Song For You, which contains duets with Charlotte Church and actress Nicole Kidman, who joins the actor on a rendition of Christina Aguilera and A Great Big World’s 2014 hit Say Something.
While at first glance it seems like an unlikely collaboration, Kidman and Evans bonded over their shared love of music while filming the 2021 drama Nine Perfect Strangers together.
“Nicole and I stayed in touch and became friends. When I was putting together the album, I was thinking about doing a few duets and I thought about people I could ask. I thought she’d say no, but I didn’t want to not ask and wonder, ‘What if?’ So I did and weirdly enough she said yes. She found some time in her busy schedule to go into a studio with (her husband), Keith Urban in Nashville and record her part of the song. It’s beautiful. I’m so grateful and proud of it.”
After beginning his career on the stage in London’s West End, Evans scored topline roles in Dracula Untold and The Hobbit. His name is now being bandied around as one of the faces who will take over from Daniel Craig as James Bond and Evans says he would love to throw his hat in the ring to play the world’s most famous spy.
But it’s a list that includes Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill, Rege-Jean Page, Chiwetel Ejiofor and front-runner Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
The field is crowded. He gets that.
So, if he can’t play 007, what about a Bond villain? After all, the perpetually buff Evans famously broke bad in the Fast and the Furious franchise, where he played the antagonist Owen Shaw, and as Gaston in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast.
“You’re not the first person to suggest that,” he replies with a laugh. “I quite enjoy playing the bad guy, and I’ve played a few of them. There’s a lot of fun to be had there. So, who knows?”
Echo 3 is streaming now on Apple TV+.
mdaniell@postmedia.com