Everything Evangeline Lilly Hated About 'Lost': Uncomfortable N-dity, Her 'Obnoxious' Character, 'Lack of Dimension'
Eight years removed from the series finale of "Lost," Evangeline Lilly is sharing her complicated feelings about her character, Kate, and the uncomfortable situations she experienced on set.
During an interview with The LOST Boys podcast, Lilly said she "did throw scripts across rooms" during the show's six-season run, explaining the one moment where she really had to put her foot down.
"In Season 3 I had a bad experience on set with being basically cornered into doing a scene partially n@ked and I felt I had no choice in the matter," she 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 formidable, very strong scene immediately after."
"And so, in Season 4, another scene came up when Kate was undressing and I fought very hard to have that scene be under my control and I failed to control it again," she went on, citing that as her breaking point. "I then said, that's it, no more. You can write whatever you want, I won't do it. I will never take my clothes off of this show again and I didn't."
She went on to say that she has no problem with n@ked scenes in general, but her personal experiences with them left her feeling like she couldn't "trust" or "be comfortable and safe" while filming one herself. She added that she has received scripts in the years since the show that involved n-dity and she passed, adding that she's "lucky" she's in a place in her career where she "can be picky."
Lilly also said she loved how her costume in "Ant-Man and The Wasp" was a full-body suit, something that made her feel safe. "I didn't have to be in a miniskirt and a bustier and I felt really grateful," she added, before making sure the comment didn't come across as a diss to "Wonder Woman." "Gal Gadot looked freaking amazing in hers, but I would have been uncomfortable," she sad. "I'm just not that person. I'm grateful for that."
It wasn't just those revealing scenes that annoyed her about "Lost," however, as she also ripped into her character a little bit.
"I always thought she was obnoxious. Not at the beginning, 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," she said. "I felt like my character went from being autonomous -- really having her own story and her own journey and her own agendas -- to chasing two men around the island. And that irritated the s--t out of me."
"I did throw scripts across rooms when I would because I would get very frustrated by the diminishing amount of autonomy that she had and the diminishing amount of her own story there was to play," she continued. Though she said she herself is someone "who goes from relationship to relationship" herself, she was disappointed in the "lack of dimension" her character got as time went on.
"It was just really, 'Jack? Sawyer? Jack? Sawyer?'" she said, referencing Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway's characters.
One situation that "irritated the shit" out of her was when her character was captured by The Others while chasing after Jack. "[It] just seemed so immature and I wanted her to be better," she said, though later noted that giving Kate flaws did make her more human.
"That said, the great thing about that, is that she was flawed. That's so important. If you don't have flaws in the women on screen, then what you're telling the world is that women have to be perfect if they're going to be lovable," Lilly added. "In a way, the things that irritated me about her were probably totally necessary and important, even."
"I think we did well and I think I tried very very hard to take what I was given and always find a way to show her strength, " she continued, "find the way to have her own thoughts and opinions and ideas and take moments that I thought might be a bit whiny and somehow make them not whiny."
