'I had a boring nine to five job in Cardiff, now I make Hollywood films with Tom Hardy'

Wales Online

27-04-2025

'I had a boring nine to five job in Cardiff, now I make Hollywood films with Tom Hardy'
Gareth Evans has just made feature film Havoc for Netflix which stars Tom Hardy and Forest Whitaker
Gareth Evans has brought Apostle, Gangs of London and now Havoc to Wales
(Image: WireImage )
Film director Gareth Evans is discussing his love for Swansea's Gower coastline a short walk from his home in the idyllic quiet spot in an accent so muddled it's hard to tell whether he's British or American, let alone Welsh.
'If we were in a pub with my mates my accent would slip right back in,' he laughs. 'When I was in Indonesia no one understood a word I was f***ing saying. There's now almost a weird version of my accent which comes out when I'm doing things like this. But I can be as Valleys as they come.'
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The action fanatic from Hirwaun moved back to Wales in 2015 after a life-changing few years in Indonesia which involved a chance meeting with a then largely unknown martial artist which would put them both on the path to stardom.
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Gareth was schooled at Penderyn Primary and the Vaynor and Penderyn High in Cefn Coed, Caerphilly borough during which time he was most concerned with his idols Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. After finishing his studies at the University of South Wales he embarked on a trip to Indonesia in the hope something would soon drop for him in filmmaking, but he never expected it to go quite as well as it did.
'As a kid I just wanted to be Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan,' he tells WalesOnline ahead of the release of his latest bonkers Netflix film Havoc starring Tom Hardy and Forest Whitaker which was entirely filmed in Wales. 'I quickly realised I was terrible at acting and even worse at martial arts. The next best thing was writing scripts, so that's what I did.'
He was nine when he scribbled his first film script onto several sheets of paper which his father - then a teacher at Bishop Hedley School in Merthyr Tydfil - had printed and laminated using the dot matrix printer in the school's computer lab. 'Looking back, I realise how my parents were always encouraging me to pursue my dreams,' Gareth recalls.
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'From their perspective at the time maybe it was a bit of a pipe dream but they never said anything other than 'go for it'. It's been a step by step process helped by a lot of work but also a lot of good fortune and brilliant timing.
"When I left university, I had the wild idea of heading to Hollywood. Instead I ended up doing a nine-to-five job in Cardiff making educational CD ROMs. But I was making the odd video too, and my boss was very supportive of my filmmaking ambitions - allowing me to take a few months off so I could make my first feature film which was self-funded."
Tom Hardy, who plays the main role in Havoc as a dodgy police officer, took some persuading but Gareth got him on board in the end
(Image: Getty Images )
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It was during his early days in Indonesia when he met martial artist Iko Uwais who he saw performing at his master's dojo in Jakarta. Gareth, who had been filming for a documentary on the martial arts discipline of silat, was inspired by Iko's talent and immediately asked him if he'd consider making a film with him.
'I didn't go to Indonesia with any intention at all to make a martial arts film,' Gareth explains. 'I had never had the intention to make a film. I was there for a documentary and I was more interested in French arthouse. But when I met Iko the martial arts world was something which sort of presented itself to me. Watching Iko perform this intricate display, the penny dropped and I knew immediately I needed to make a film with him. It changed our lives and changed everything for the both of us. He's gone on to have an incredible career.'
As has Gareth. Havoc, which was released on Friday, is his fifth feature film after Merantau, The Raid, Raid 2, and Apostle - the majority of which was shot in Margam Park, Port Talbot. He also directed the TV series Gangs of London in Cardiff and he now has a collaborative deal with Netflix.
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Havoc, an action thriller, stars Tom Hardy as 'morally dubious' police officer Walker who is on a mission to rescue a politician's drug-dealing son from almost certain death at the hands of an angry gang boss. It is set against the backdrop of New York but features Swansea, Port Talbot, and Cardiff while most of the internal scenes were filmed at the Great Point Studios in St Mellons.
'We created a hell of a lot in the studios; alleyways, bits of China town, the nightclub,' Gareth explains. 'Tom Pearce, our production designer who I worked with on Apostle, did an incredible job. A lot of the locations were filmed in Port Talbot and Swansea. We shot a lot at the train tracks in Baglan and there are bits of Cardiff Bay throughout the movie if you look closely. We transformed Bute Street quite fundamentally. We also filmed a lot at Brangwyn Hall in Swansea and at the new university campus at Fabian Way.'
Tom Hardy pictured with Barry Island Pleasure Park owner Henry Danter in the summer of 2021 when Hardy was in Wales filming Havoc
(Image: Barry Island Pleasure Park/Facebook )
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Scenes across Wales to look out for in Havoc Seren Stiwdios, Cardiff
Pierhead Building, Cardiff
AB Ports, Cardiff
Bute Street, Cardiff (Production turned a typical Cardiff street into an American Boulevard, with a foot of snow
Trade Street, Cardiff
Crockherbtown Lane, Cardiff
Bay Campus, Swansea University (Scene where Forest Whitaker's character gets attacked in the car)
Brangwyn Hall, Swansea
Kon-Tiki Bar, Swansea
The Strand, Swansea
Proud Mary, Swansea
Evening Post, Cambrian House, Swansea
Dragon Studios, Bridgend
Candleston Woods, Bridgend
Baglan Bay Train, Port Talbot (Filming of the climax of the film)
11 Lynmouth Drive, Sully
News of a big production hit the headlines when Hardy was pictured in Barry Island by tourists that summer during his stay in Wales. Pleasure park staff were more stunned that Hardy turned up again later in the same week for another day on the rides.
'Tom enjoyed Barry Island. He was a big fan,' Gareth laughs. 'Forest Whitaker would go off and discover the Welsh coastlines. It was nice for us to be able to share stories about work and experiences but then for me to share a little bit of the Welsh culture and landscape with them as well.' A picture of Whitaker at the Bosherston lily ponds in Pembrokeshire also went viral.
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'I left for Indonesia at a time when the film industry in Wales was just about to kick off,' Gareth says. 'There was always a bit of a niggle that I felt I hadn't established myself in my own hometown. So that was the plan when I came back to do Apostle. When I came back to Wales in 2015 I met with my producing partner Ed Talfan and the experience of creating Apostle here was transformative for me. It was so professional. The crew was incredible, very hardworking, it was off the charts. Shooting Gangs of London here was a testing moment where I got to try out the idea of shooting what I was accustomed to shooting in Indonesia in Wales.
'When you look around Wales the country has so many amazing opportunities location wise. Wales has a little bit of everything. We have the mountains and the countryside as well as the urban cityscapes. We have the old period buildings as well as the modern techy buildings. We've also had so much support from the Welsh government and councils. They've closed roads when we've needed to, they've let us use their spaces. We're very grateful. More of the same please.'
Gareth on the set out Raid 2
(Image: Wales on Sunday )
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Hardy took some persuading to take on the role of Walker which involved eight four-hour video calls. 'We finished the script and then we had news come in from his reps saying he was free. Our paths had almost crossed a few times. He'd been a fan of The Raid and Raid 2 and so this opening appeared and he responded to us sending the script. He wanted to meet us to get to know the tone of the film. It was eight calls which were four hours long chatting endlessly about who Walker was, what his relationships were. He wanted to know everything about the intricacies of the character idea and the film. I'd never discussed a character and a film in that much detail before just to get someone to sign. It was crazy. It actually made my job much easier in terms of directing him because we understood each other perfectly on set.'
Gareth was most enthused during the shooting of his latest film that he was able to commute home to his family after a day on set - pretty unusual in the world of filmmaking. 'Being in Swansea near the coast is lovely,' he says. 'My brother lives in Swansea and I wanted to be close to him. We were always super close as kids and the worst part of being in Indonesia was not being able to see him when I wanted to, although he did come out to see me a couple of times.
'I have a lot of fond memories of Swansea as a kid because we would always go with mam and dad. I've been in Swansea for nine years now and I never, ever take it for granted; the scenery, the views, the short walk to the beach. Nostalgia kicks in every time I do that walk. Every time I pass the summer chalets and I go back to being six or seven in the back of dad's car.'