BEFORE scoring the role of Kate Austen on hit drama series Lost, Evangeline Lilly was deeply sceptical about the TV industry. She believed the business to be superficial, corrupt and ugly.
She confesses her views have now changed, saying: “I’ve come to realise there is so much beauty that comes out of this industry.”
And it’s now a by-product of her role in the show - public recognition - that causes her serious grief.
Leading up to her casting in Lost, Lilly was intensely private. She would go to acting classes and, “like a little mouse, make my notes, leave and never speak to anybody”.
Dealing with the sudden fame triggered an emotional meltdown as interest in Lilly reached ridiculous proportions - possibly because of a romance she won’t publicly confirm with co-star Dominic Monaghan (who plays heroin addict Charlie Pace).
Whenever Lilly is off the set in Hawaii, she is followed by paparazzi.
“I’ve been in a high-speed car chase,” she says. “Recently, I chased down a photographer just to approach him and look him in the eye and say, ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Leave me alone, please’.” Did it have the desired effect?
“I think it did. He followed me for a few days and I didn’t see him any more after that. But I don’t like to see a photo of myself on a day when I was having, you know, quiet time by myself reading a book on the beach or something and feeling like somebody followed me there. Someone followed me halfanhour around the island to get a picture of me, which means I wasn’t alone and it’s a very unnerving feeling.
“I’ve had people try to call me out of my house when I was alone in the middle of the night, and that was unnerving.
“Those kinds of things, especially as a woman, make you feel on edge. You start to feel you’re not entirely safe.”
Lilly, 26, admits she could easily have missed her chance at acting success.
While studying international relations at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia, the Canadian was earning good money doing TV commercials. She began getting work as a movie extra, which she loved only because it fitted in perfectly with her other interests.
“I could go in when I wanted. Do my homework. Read books. Eat their food catering on movie sets. Rest. That was my job and I got paid for it.”
Her agent kept pressing Lilly to test for roles in TV shows and films, but she wouldn’t contemplate acting as her career priority. She changed when a friend accused her of fearing success.
In January 2004, she went to a couple of dozen auditions. By March, she was in Hawaii filming a pilot for Lost.
“I don’t have a lot of things that I can actually say are the same as they were two years ago,” she says. “I live in a different country. I live in a different climate. I live with different people.
“I exist in a completely different world. I think the world of Hollywood, quote, unquote, is very different than the average working world, as most people know.
“There are a lot of things about myself that I feel I’ve hung on to, that I want to hang on to, but the whole notion of people approaching me and people knowing me …
“If I could have the job without that aspect of fame, I would much prefer it. I would prefer my anonymity. But I do accept the fact that it is a form of affirmation and encouragement.”
