Lost Finds Ungilded Lilly
At 25, this Canadian import has become the very model of an overnight success. And yet to watch this entertaining sci-fi adventure, which strands Kate and 47 other plane crash survivors on a mysterious uncharted island, you'd never guess she hadn't been acting for years.
Well, you may not know it, but she does. "I feel really intimidated and out of my league," the actress says with a modesty as becoming as it is unusual. Actually, Lilly almost didn't join the league at all.
Three years ago, a representative of a modeling agency spotted her on the street in Kelowna, British Columbia, and tried to sign her up then and there. Many would have been thrilled with this twist on the Lana Turner Hollywood myth, but not Lilly. She walked away insulted that a stranger would assume she wanted to build her life around her looks.
Her plan was to get her degree and become a missionary. But she needed a way to finance that plan, so six months later, she signed with the agency and started doing commercials. What did she think of it? "I hated it." She was ready to give it all up until "one of my closest friends said to me one day, 'What are you afraid of? ... I think you're afraid of success.' "
Afraid her friend was right, she began taking acting lessons and going to auditions, including one for Lost. She was hoping to land a part as an extra. Instead, producer J.J. Abrams, who had made a star out of Jennifer Garner with Alias, offered Lilly the lead. "It totally floored me. I was just enjoying the auditions so much, I forgot there was an end result."
Lilly was hesitant, so much so that Abrams asked her two important questions: "Are you ready for this, and do you want this? Because if you don't, run away." She's on the air, so you can figure out her answer. Still, she says, she wasn't sure she had made the right decision until she met her co-star, Matthew Fox. She immediately took to him ("He's such a warm person"), and she quickly figured out that he could do the heavy lifting.
"I am not qualified to carry a show," says the actress, who is single. "This guy has carried two series [Party of Five and Haunted]. I can ride on his back a little and let him carry the show, and that was a great relief."
Plus, while she may be an acting novice, she does have one bit of experience Fox can't top. She once lived in a grass hut in the Philippines while doing missionary work, which helped prepare her, she says, for the physical nature of the shoot on Lost's Hawaii set.
Proud of the show and thrilled to be part of it, Lilly says her biggest surprise was finding that so many of the show-business horror stories she'd heard were untrue, at least for her. "I was so unprepared. I've been shocked by the warmth and the generosity and the kindness and the giving of all the people. ... I'm still in that enamored stage where I'm in love with the industry."
Let's hope she never finds that love is lost.
USA TODAY by Robert Bianco 10/13/04
LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST
Main || News
Solitary Phoenix: Home | Index | Site status || About me