MOVIES
Evangeline Lilly says she would rather read than act
The ‘Ant-Man’ actress kicked off her acting career after being handpicked from a group of extras while she was just trying to read her book.
Evangeline Lilly never set out to be an actress, instead the acting life chose her while she was reading a book on the sidelines.
The then broke student made her acting debut on the first day of being an extra on set, having signed up because a friend had told her it was a great way to make money.
While visiting Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’ to promote her new film, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, the third film in the franchise, Evangelie Lilly talked about how her acting career got started, some ‘Lost’ anecdotes, and of course her reprise her role as Hope van Dyne, The Wasp in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’.
How did Evangeline Lily get into acting?
Lilly revealed that she never wanted to be an actress. She was a student in January 2004 trying to make ends meet, and had heard that there was money in being an extra.
“I was not looking to get into acting when I got into acting,” the ‘Lost’ actress said.
“I was in university. I was a broke student. I just needed to make some money and a job that was flexible,” Lilly continued. “I had no rear window in my car. It was duct-taped ‘cause I couldn’t afford to replace it. I was living on, like, peanut butter and tea.”
“And somebody told me there’s this great thing you can do. You can go on film sets. You can study all day. They give you free food, and they pay you for it.”
Lilly thought that sounded “Fantastic!” and once she showed up for the first day, they offered her a role as an actor.
The student responded, “Nope. Don’t actually. I want to study my book.”
Evengeline Lilly was upgraded to actor that day, and after some commercial work afterwards, she still wasn’t into it.
“Then I went on to commercial work ‘cause that paid a lot more,” Lilly explained “But then that was really degrading.”
Despite her insistence that she doesn’t want to act, her agent persisted, which resulted in her role in the popular television series, ‘Lost’.
“I’m like, “Dude, I don’t want to be an actor. When are you gonna figure this out?”, Lilly said of her agent. “And that was in January of 2004. And in March of 2004, I was in Hawaii shooting “Lost.”