Evangeline Lilly is “stepping away” from Hollywood for the foreseeable future.
The actress, who got her big break as Kate Austen on Lost, shared the news with fans in an Instagram post on Monday.
“I am so filled with joy and contentment today as I live out my vision. Praise God, I feel so grateful for my blessings,” she wrote alongside a nearly 20-year-old video of herself sharing her dreams for the future.
“Stepping away from what seems like the obvious choice (wealth and fame) can feel scary at times, but stepping into your dharma replaces the fear with fulfillment. I might return to Hollywood one day, but, for now, this is where I belong. A new season has arrived, and I AM READY…and I AM HAPPY. ?️???”
Lilly, 44, never really planned to get into acting, but while in college she was told about an opportunity where “you could go on film sets. You could study all day. They give you free food, and they pay you for it.”
Although she went into the gig as an extra, she was immediately hired as an actor.
“And then I went on to commercial work because that paid a lot more,” she told Jimmy Fallon in 2023. “But then that was really degrading. And then my agent was like ‘Can I just send you some stuff for real roles?’ and I’m like ‘Dude, I don’t want to be an actor. When are you going to figure this out?'”
Eventually she gave in and let her agent send her scripts for “real roles.”
“And that was in January 2004. And in March of 2004 I was in Hawaii shooting Lost.”
After Lost, Lilly began her stint in film.
She starred in Real Steel (2011), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014). In 2015, she entered the Marvel Universe as Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man, but not before previously declining a role in an unspecified role in an X-Men film.
“[He] was like, ‘Hey, so, the X-Men guys are asking me if I would approach you because they know that you won’t talk to anybody,” Lilly recalled Hugh Jackman asking her. “They knew I was working with you and were interested to know if it would ever interest you to do an X-Men thing.”
“I was like, ‘No. It doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested,'” she admitted. “I was like, ‘I feel like such a dick because I’m talking to an X-Men! The X-Men! And I’m telling him, ‘No that doesn’t appeal. Like, what?!’ I felt so rude!”
While Lilly didn’t give specifics about life after Hollywood, if the video she shared is any indication of what’s ahead, she’ll be spending her days focusing on her family and humanitarian work.
I’ll miss Evangeline Lilly in film and television, but she deserves to retire! She gave us all so many years of wonderful entertainment, it’s now time for her to give her all to her family.
READ MORE:
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