Lost Star Evangeline Lilly Slams Her Performance in the Series

These days, Evangeline Lilly is known best for playing Hope Van Dyne/Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but before she was an Avenger, Lilly starred in the hit television show Lost. Lilly was only 24 when she started playing Kate Austen in the series, and she recently admitted that she wasn’t a fan of her performance in those earlier seasons. In honor of the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Lilly had a chat with the Happy Sad Confused podcast and opened up about watching herself in Lost. 

“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 shared. “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.” She added, “I do feel like Season 3 was a turning point, where I went from ‘panicked, figure it out, just shoot from the hip, feel it, go with my gut,’ to ‘I hate this, I don’t want to do this, get me out of here,’ to ‘oh, I guess if I’m here, I’m stuck, and I’m going to stay, I should figure it out.’ …. And that was in Season 3, and I started to actually try to learn my craft.”

Why Did Evangeline Lilly Turn Down Superhero Roles Before Wasp? 

Wasp wasn’t the first superhero role offered to the Lost alum. Lilly was approached by Joss Whedon to play Wonder Woman, and she even turned down Hugh Jackman’s pitch for her to join the X-Men films.

“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 of playing Wonder Woman. “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.”

She added of Jackman’s request, “I was like, ‘No. It doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested,’” Lilly explained. “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!” She added, “[I was] too young to be that polite.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now playing in theaters.