In Step With...Evangeline Lilly
She’s perhaps the most intriguing and appealing female character on ABC’s huge hit series Lost, and with a second season under way, Evangeline Lilly herself had gone missing.
When, nearly two hours late, the actress—who plays the fugitive Kate—phoned my house from Hawaii, where the Emmy-winning show is filmed, she was full of apologies. “I slept late,” explained Evangeline. “We had a late night.” And did she have to work today? “No,” she said. “I’m packing to go to L.A. for a photo shoot, then I’ll be flying right back to work.”
There had been wisecracks prior to its debut about Lost being Gilligan’s Island revisited, but it opened with tremendous ratings and critical raves. “We were so blown away by the numbers,” said Evangeline, who herself had been among the early doubters. “I had told my agent, ‘This is not the show I really want to be in,’” she said. “I was still so ignorant of the industry. But after I read the script—the terrific writing—I knew it was going to be something incredible. I couldn’t stop turning the pages, and if I felt that way, the audience must too.” Does she like her character? “If I had the choice of any role on TV, Kate would be my favorite,” she said. “She’s strong yet vulnerable and complex.”
How’s working in Hawaii? “When we began the first season, we were told, ‘Good luck. Find your own place.’ My younger sister flew over to keep me company. We had no sheets, no phone—just a rented car. We would curl up on the linoleum floor, trying to keep warm. I was working 12- to 15-hour days. Later we found a really nice place, and I’ve finally settled into Hawaii.”
Any new plot twists? Evangeline was mum: “We get the script left on our doorstep the day that we shoot,” she said. “Or maybe the day before. They keep it mysterious.”
Alberta[Canada]-born Evangeline Lilly was discovered by a Ford modeling agent. “People don’t realize Ford has an acting branch,” she said. “So I was never really a model.” She studied international relations at the University of British Columbia and was in the Philippines at 18, working with a missionary group. “I’m passionate about that,” she told me. “I helped start a university branch of the aid group.” As well as act? “I’d go to school for a semester or two, then back to acting, then back to school. I wanted to both learn and have fun.” Working on the smash hit Lost, Evangeline has come to love Hawaii. “I used to be afraid of the water,” she told me. “So I took lessons, and now I really love the ocean. It’s so warm and peaceful and welcoming. Now, every day that I’m not in the ocean is incomplete.” Did Evangeline go swimming on her recent hiatus? “No, I went to Rwanda,” she said. “It was really amazing. I didn’t go there to work but just to get away.”
Filming far from the hustle of Hollywood, has the Lost cast and crew become close on their Hawaiian set? “We’re a very close group,” Lilly says, “like a family—like siblings or cousins. [After the season hiatus] people were saying, ‘I didn’t realize how much I missed you until now.’ And we’re pretty much the original group. One character died last year—so that one’s gone—and there are some new characters coming in.”
Living in Hawaii, has Lilly learned to surf? “Yes,” she says, adding, “it is as tough as they say. And the hardest part is learning to stand up.”
Parade Magazine by James Brady 10/23/05
LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST LOST
Solitary Phoenix: Home | Index | Site status || About me