Evangeline Lilly Speaks Out About Being ‘Cornered’ Into Performing ‘Lost’ Nudity, Which Left Her ‘Mortified’
Zack Sharf
Evangeline Lilly spent six seasons playing Kate Austen on the popular ABC drama series “Lost,” but it turns out she wasn’t comfortable with every moment behind the scenes. During a recent appearance on “The Lost Boys” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly), the actress revealed she was pressured into performing a partial nude scene during season three, a moment that left her extremely upset.
“In season three, I’d had a bad experience on set with being basically cornered into doing a scene partially naked, and I felt had no choice in the matter,” Lilly said. “And I was mortified and I was trembling when it finished. I was crying my eyes out and I had to go on do a very formidable, very strong scene thereafter.”
Lilly said the season three incident was not an isolated moment. During production on season four, the actress said a scene came up where her character was undressing. Lilly “fought very hard” to have the moment be under her control, but she said she failed to have the upper hand.
“So 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 on this show again,’” Lilly said. “And I didn’t.”
Lilly said her experiences on “Lost” prepared her for the future and she has since declined to take on roles where there are nude scenes in the script.
“It’s not because I think there’s anything wrong with doing nudity, It’s because I don’t trust that I can be comfortable and safe,” Lilly said. “I’m lucky, I’m in a privileged position because I can be picky. I feel for women who are struggling to come up in the industry and don’t know how to navigate that…When it comes to women being vulnerable on set when it comes to their nudity though, I haven’t been in the position to know if that has changed or not.”
Lilly most recently starred in the Marvel tentpole “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and is expected to appear in next summer’s untitled “Avengers” sequel.
