Evangeline Lilly has been captivating audiences ever since she was introduced to fans on Lost .
Since then, she’s brought brilliant feminine energy to her roles in The Hobbit , and Ant-Man .
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She’s not even fame-obsessed, either, as she may or may not have quit Hollywood for a while…
For more about this blue-eyed beauty, keep reading.
1. She’s Canadian.
She was born in Fort Saskatchewan Alberta on August 3, 1979.
As a blue-eyed beauty, she was actually discovered by a Ford Models scout in Kelowna, British Columbia. But since she never wanted to be famous, she didn’t seek out fame for a while.
2. Evangeline Lilly isn’t her real name.
It’s actually Nicole; Evangeline is her middle name.
Celebrities take on stage names for all different reasons, but in the case of Evangeline, er, Nicole, she probably wanted a name that stands out.
3. She studied Muay Thai and MMA-style fighting for *Ant-Man*.
The actress took the fighting scenes in the movie very seriously.
But she learned in a unique way to make the movements of the masculine-driven sports look more graceful and feminine.
4. She’s the first actress in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to get equal billing with a man.
This isn’t something that she fought for before she suited up for Ant-Man .
Instead, the studio simply offered it to her.
“That came as a surprise later,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“I got a surprise email with nothing but a JPEG of the title card. And that was how they told me. Pretty cool.”
Good for you queen! You deserve it!
5. She brought femininity to her character in *Ant-Man* to inspire females.
The movie may say Ant-Man , but the actress told The Hollywood Reporter that she was all about bringing that female energy.
“In her fight scenes, as trivial as it might seem, I really pushed and fought for her to fight with elegance, grace and femininity,” she said.
“She moves differently than a man,” she continued.
“I wanted her to have a signature style that little girls, like I was when I was a feminine, girly little girl, would be able to fall in love with, emulate and relate to in their own movements.”
6. She has a brief cameo in Stephen King’s *Kingdom Hospital*.
“In one scene I’m sleeping in a bed and then I get shot,” she recalled to Hello! about the 2003 movie.
“I might as well have been an extra.” she said about it.
7. She was really uncomfortable with the fame she got from *Lost*.
Being launched into international stardom is the goal of many actors, but for Evangeline, she was ” really uncomfortable .”
“I instantly balked, didn’t know how to deal with it and felt very uncomfortable after that situation.”
The fame even caused her to retire for a while.
After she did a film called Real Steel with Hugh Jackman, she walked away from Hollywood.
“I said, ‘I’m done, I’m never doing this again.’ I had a baby, I was writing scripts, I had a quiet little life.”
8. Her role in *The Hobbit* got her into acting again.
After having no contact with Hollywood for two years, Peter Jackson was able to reach her.
When he presented her with the role of Tauriel, she was torn at first.
“I was so torn because I had genuinely retired, I thought I was done, but I really wanted to do the movie.”
In the end, the prospect of getting to be a woodland elf lit a spark in the 13-year-old girl inside her.
9. She’s a children’s book author.
She may love acting, but her first passion has always been writing.
She wrote The Squickerwonkers , a series that was written to entertain both parents and kids alike.
10. She thinks that she has the best suit in the Marvel Universe.
I mean, she does look amazing in it.
“I don’t know if it was just because I liked it so much, and I felt so cool in it and I really wanted to wear it,” she said in an interview with NDTV .
She even took a “method” approach to wearing it.
“I slept in it. I ate in it. I bathed in it. I never took it off … ever.”
Since a lot of men in the Marvel Universe had complaints about their own costumes, she had a theory about this.
“I was like, ‘Do I have the most comfortable suit in the MCU, or have men not had the life experience of being uncomfortable for the sake of looking good,’” she said.
“Whereas a woman’s like, ‘I dunno, this is like, normal? I wear heels to work, I’m uncomfortable all day,'” she continued.
11. She’s not interested in a *Lost* reboot.
Playing Kate Austen for six seasons was enough for the star.
“The thing about reboots and remakes is that I don’t like them in general, period,” she told Entertainment Weekly .
12. She was reportedly in an on-and-off relationship with *Lost* co-star, Dominic Monaghan.
While their relationship was never confirmed, Lilly always had great things to say about him.
With him I feel at peace and fulfilled,” she told Hello! . “I couldn’t be happier. He’s my favourite person in the whole world.”
13. She felt pressured to do partially nude scenes in *Lost*.
She revealed on The Lost Boys podcast that the experience caused her to “tremble” and cry.”
In the end, the show’s creators issued out a public apology. “No person should ever feel unsafe at work. Period,” they wrote.
