ANT MAN AND The Wasp star Evangeline Lilly says she passes on any scripts which contain nudity after an incident on the set of Lost.
From 2004 to 2010, the 38-year-old actress played airplane crash survivor Kate Austen for six seasons on ABC’s Lost, and in a new episode of ‘The Lost Boys’ podcast, she shared some behind-the-scenes stories from the set.
She said the role changed her life, even though she never aspired to be famous.
I would say it was my destiny, because it certainly wasn’t my agenda. I was one of those very rare, rare actresses who wasn’t trying to be an actress when I got that job. And the only reason why I took the job at the time was because I had enormous faith, and I really believed that everything in my life just continued to sort of push and prod me and point me towards this thing.”
To the host’s surprise, Lilly said she “always” thought her character “was obnoxious.”
At the beginning, she was kind of cool. And then as the show went on, I felt like she became more and more predictable and obnoxious.
I felt like my character went from being autonomous – really having her own story and her own journey and her own agendas – to chasing to men around the island. And that irritated the sh*t out of me.”
Here here.
As well as that, the actress explained that, following on incident on the set of ‘Lost’, she no longer feels comfortable accepting scripts which involve nudity.
In season three, I’d had a bad experience on set with being basically cornered into doing a scene partially naked, and I felt had no choice in the matter. I was mortified and I was trembling, and when it finished, I was crying my eyes out and I had to go on do a very formidable, very strong scene immediately thereafter.
And so, in season four, another scene came up where Kate was undressing, and I fought very hard to have that scene be under my control, and I failed to control it again. And so, I then said, ‘That’s it. No more. You can write whatever you want—[but] I won’t do it. I will never take my clothes off on this show again.’ And I didn’t.”
Lilly added that she would handle the situation differently today. “I’ve been doing this for nearly 15 years, so I kind of know the ropes,” she said. “I’m a little bit better equipped now to not have uncomfortable experiences come up.”
On her reasoning to pass on scripts, she said: “… it’s not because I think there’s anything wrong with doing nudity. It’s because I don’t trust that I can be comfortable and safe.
I’m lucky. I’m in a position—a very privileged position—where I’m allowed to be picky. I can be picky. I’ve got enough success under my belt that I can be, and I feel for women who are just struggling to come up in the industry and don’t really know how to navigate that.”
You can listen to the full interview here.
