Actor Luke Evans says that being out hasn't affected his Hollywood career.

The 38-year-old Welsh actor plays Gaston in Disney's live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.

In an interview with The Jackal, Evans talked about being out in Hollywood.

“As an actor you have to keep some sort of enigma and mystery. There’s a dignity to keeping private. I’m trying to keep a bit of dignity to my private life and to protect the people in my life. Like my family. They don’t do press. They don’t do interviews. I don’t get photographed with them. Although everyone knows they’re my mum and dad in the Valleys. It’s the choice I’ve made,” Evans said, referring to the South Wales Valleys, not MTV's British reality series The Valleys.

When asked whether Hollywood can cope with the idea of a gay action hero, Evans answered that the question is “difficult to answer,” but suggested that he doesn't feel discriminated against based on his sexuality.

“I don’t know how ‘Hollywood’ as you call it, thinks,” Evans said. “I don’t think about it. I don’t feel they’re connected. Talent, success, what you do in your personal life – I don’t see how one should have an effect on the other. I don’t think I’d be in this business if I felt that I was not being employed because of who I am in my personal life.”