‘Lost’ actor Evangeline Lilly quits Hollywood
Actor Evangeline Lilly has revealed that she is quitting Hollywood for the foreseeable future, although she has equally admitted that she would be open to “return one day”, depending on how her retirement plan goes.
Lilly is best known for playing Kate Austen in the ABC drama series Lost and also appearing in movies such as The Hurt Locker, Ant-Man and Peter Jacksons’ The Hobbit trilogy. Outside of her work in the film industry, the Canadian actor has released a children’s book series The Squickerwonkers.
However, it now looks as though Lilly is ready to step away from her acting profession and recently released a video on Instagram from 2006 explaining her previous ambition to leave Hollywood behind.
In the video, Lilly explained, “Ten years from now, where would I like to be? I am terrified to admit this to the rest of the acting world but ideally 10 years from now I’d like to be a retired actress and have a family.”
The actor went on to add that she would prefer to be “writing and influencing people’s lives in humanitarian ways.” Alongside the nearly two-decade-old video, Lilly added a caption that explained her current decision to leave acting.
According to the caption, Lilly is “filled with joy and contentment” with her “vision”. She wrote, “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.”
The actor signed off by claiming that a “new season” of her live has begun and that she is “ready and happy”. Prior to making her announcement, Lilly had already been on an acting hiatus for the last three years, since she finished working on Ant-Man: Quantumania.
In a statement with Variety, the former Lost star noted, “This time outside of the business has brought me a grounding sense of fulfillment and joy. I could return tomorrow, two years from now or never, but at the moment I am not actively pursuing any work in the industry and am not under any contractual obligations to anybody.”
Now, Lilly is focusing on her writing and humanitarian efforts and is unlikely to be appearing in any movie or TV productions anytime soon. She had recently revealed that she turned down the opportunity to join the X-Men franchise when given the chance by Hugh Jackman as well as previously rejecting a role as Wonder Woman.
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