Evangeline Lilly wants Hollywood to lose her number.
The “Lost” alum shared that she is “stepping into [her] dharma,” much in line with the hit ABC series, and opting to step away from acting. Lilly included a 2006 video in which she said she aspired to be a “retired actress” by 2016 and focus on humanitarian work instead.
“Thank you @lost_theothers for digging up this (nearly twenty-year-old) footage of me speaking out my dreams under (what looks like) a full moon,” Lilly captioned the video. “And thank you to @femalepoetssociety for digging up this (much older) footage of the incredible #mayaangelou perfectly articulating how I feel about life.”
Lilly continued, “I am so filled with joy and contentment today as I live out my vision. Praise God, I feel so grateful for my blessings. 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 famously played Kate Austen on “Lost” and later joined franchises “The Hobbit” and “Ant-Man.” Lilly also starred in “Real Steel.” Her most recent role was for the MCU’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” in 2023.
Despite her TV start in stardom, Lilly said during the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that she thought her performance in “Lost” was “bad.” She still can’t even watch the series more than a decade later without “cringing.”
“We would have ‘Lost’ parties where the cast would get together to watch the show, and when it would be a Kate-centric episode, I would want to curl in a hole and die because I knew I was bad,” Lilly said in 2023. “And I still to this day will stand by the fact that I can watch the first couple seasons and I cringe because I’m not very good.”
Lilly continued that in by Season 3, she “started to actually try to learn my craft.”
Lilly shared during the podcast that she turned down roles in “X-Men” and the DCU, even opting to not star as Wonder Woman in a Joss Whedon film.
“It didn’t appeal and there was nothing about the meeting that like, jazzed me or made me think like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do this.’ Nothing clicked. Nothing felt good,” Lilly said. “I am way too authentic for my own good. I mean, it’s not good. If I am not impressed, you’ll know. And maybe you shouldn’t know sometimes.”
