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s someone who’s spent
the last six years filming
in Hawaii’s humid
A tropics, in close
proximity to both
Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway
(Lost’s Jack and Sawyer), you kind
of want to be Evangeline Lilly before
you even meet her. Then you actually
meet her – and you want to be her
even more. She’s just so, well, nice.
Hair scraped back into a plait –
“Hawaii is hot, muggy and wet and
your hair never looks good” she
laughs, despite being the new face
of L’Oréal – and wearing minimal
make-up, the 30-year-old Lost
actress has an approachability that
immediately betrays her birthplace
(she hails from a non-starry Alberta,
Canada) and answers every question
with thoughtful honesty. You’d never
guess she spends half the year on
a time-travelling island…
From tomboy fugitive to ‘mum’,
your character Kate Austen has
changed so much throughout the
show. Has the Lost experience
altered you, too?
Yes, a lot. The number one thing I’ve
learned is how to confront instead of
retreat, because my whole mentality in
life usually used to be the path of least
resistance. If somebody is getting in
my way, I will try to go round them, not
through them. But in an environment
like this, and in Hollywood with so
many pressures and so many strong
personalities and powerful people, you
really have to learn who you are and
to stand up for yourself in a way that
is respectable and not in a way that
turns you into a diva. So that’s been an
amazing thing to learn; to be strong
and confident about issues you come
across in the workplace and in my
private life.
What has kept you grounded and
stopped you becoming a diva?
My family. They’re good blue-collar
Canadians and have amazing moral and
ethical values. The main thing my dad
gave me was a work ethic. You go to
work and you don’t complain and if
you are sick as a dog you still show
up and work hard. And my mother
always taught me to put myself in other
people’s shoes. If anyone is upsetting
you and you don’t like the way you are
being treated, think what they might be
feeling. That’s served me really well.
You’ve spoken in the past about how
hard you found getting your head
round fame and celebrity to begin
with. Have you
found a way of
coping with it
that’s made it
any easier?
Avoid it at all costs!
I’ve stopped doing
any personal press.
I stopped going to
the beach – God,
if I saw one more
picture of myself
in a bikini I think I’d
have shot myself.
And outside
the show I always
choose projects
that are very quiet.
Most people don’t
know I have been
doing them and
most people haven’t
seen them [Lilly
has starred in
independent films
like The Hurt Locker, winner of last
year’s Venice Film Festival Grand Prize].
Because I don’t want the splash, I don’t
want the hype. I don’t strive for or need
or want any of the rest of the fluff that
comes along with Hollywood.
ON THE RED CARPET AT THE
LOOKING FOR ERIC PREMIERE
IN CANNES THIS YEAR
The next series – season 6 – is the
last one. Will you return to LA after
Lost finishes?
Los Angeles is a beautiful city in a
lot of ways but I don’t think I want to
live there. I intend on pursuing a lot
of other things in my life. I would never
say I won’t act again, but it’s not my
first priority. Before this show everybody
knows I had been intending to be some
kind of humanitarian worker and I will
definitely, thankfully, have more time
to pursue that. And writing is my first
passion. I can’t stop it.
I write all the time so
I want to either publish
something I have written
or sell a film script.
Would you write
anything like Lost?
Never in a million years!
I am so not a sci-fi nut or buff in any way
and this show is so beyond me, I couldn’t
fathom a show like this. But I’ll write
anything. If one day a TV series comes
into my head and that is what I want to
write, I’ll write it. It just depends what
story is in my brain at the time.
If you could pick the next location
for your work, where would it be?
Probably Canada. I miss home.
I miss the culture, the people, the
EVANGELINE LILLY
I A VO I D FAME AT
ALL COSTS
She’s trapped on a desert island – but steers clear of the beach. Jenny
Eden meets the lovely contradiction that is Evangeline Lilly
THE ACTRESS WITH
LOST CO-STAR
JOSH HOLLOWAY
weather. I miss the brisk cold air on my
face to make your skin feel tight and
clean and fresh as opposed to every
day feeling groggy and hot. So either
that or France.
I love France. I’ve been to Paris
and Cannes. I love the food – fois
gras, lobster bisque. I could probably
live on bread and cheese for the rest
of my life. And you are going to
drop down dead when I tell you this
– I love the people. The culture fits
me; it suits me. I want to have an
immediate rapport with you but
don’t expect too much intimacy.
That’s me in a nutshell. And that’s the
French, man. They will be jovial and
happy and then you try to be friends
with them and they’re like, “Whoah!
Hang on a minute – we were just being
nice,” and it works for me.
I think that each of us, without
realising it, are very similar to
somewhere. We just don’t know
“I don’t want any of the fluff
that comes with Hollywood.
I don’t want the hype”
where until we go and visit. And
then we just click.
You used to enjoy running and
surfing, but now you’ve stopped going
to the beach, how do you keep fit?
My physique has changed due to the
difference in my lifestyle. I’m softer
than I used to be, which is not a bad
thing – it’s a good thing and it’s a result
of going from being a 24-year-old girl
to being a 30-year-old woman. I do still
swim, but I swim in my pool and I walk
a lot – in hats and sunglasses! And
I do lots of stretching, but I don’t have
a workout regime. I really believe that
if your body is craving movement,
then move.
Lost: Season Five is released on Blu-ray
and DVD on 26 Oct
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