Before she was kicking butt as one half of the titular duo in the film “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” actress Evangeline Lilly’s most famous role was as Kate on the hit ABC series “LOST.” The series, which ran from 2004 to 2010, propelled Lilly into superstardom. However, now that the series is well behind her, the actress is beginning to open up about her issues with the show, as well as her character in particular.
In an interview for The LOST Boys podcast (via Huffington Post), Lilly discussed once incident behind-the-scenes that left her in tears.
“In Season 3, I’d had a bad experience on set with being basically cornered into doing a scene partially naked, and I felt I had no choice in the matter,” Lilly said. “I was mortified and I was trembling, and when it finished I was crying my eyes out and had to go on and do another very formidable and strong scene immediately after.”
After that incident, Lilly said that she never was going to allow herself to be put in that situation again, and she instituted a new rule. “I said, ‘That’s it ― no more. You can write whatever you want, I won’t do it. I will never take my clothes off on this show again’ ― and I didn’t,” she continued.
However, it wasn’t just that scene that caused Lilly to have issues with “LOST.” According to the star, she was constantly concerned about how her character of Kate was being portrayed and how, ultimately, she thinks the show failed.
“Not at the beginning ― at the beginning, she was kind of cool,“ Lilly said. “But as the show went on, I thought she became more and more predictable. I felt that my character went from being autonomous ― really having her own story, journey and agendas ― to chasing two men around the island. That irritated the shit out of me.”
The two men she’s referencing were the characters of Jack and Sawyer, played by Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway, respectively. Lilly continues to explain how she strived to show Kate in a better light, in spite of how she was written, which the actress thinks might have been “whiny.”
“I wanted her to be better because she was an icon for strength and for women,” Lilly continued. “I think I tried very hard to take what I was given and always find the way to show that strength, to have her own thoughts and to take moments I thought might be quite whiny and somehow make them… not whiny.”
As the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements continue to allow for women to speak up about their issues in the entertainment industry, we’ll probably continue to hear more and more stories about situations like what Lilly faced a decade ago.