Updated on August 3: Lost creators issued an apology statement to Us Weekly regarding Lilly’s comments. “Our response to Evie’s comments this morning in the media was to immediately reach out to her to profoundly apologize for the experience she detailed while working on LOST,” the statement read. “We have not yet connected with her, but remain deeply and sincerely sorry. No person should ever feel unsafe at work. Period. ”
Evangeline Lilly does not have the fondest memories of her time playing Kate Austen on Lost.
“In season 3, I had a bad experience on set with being basically cornered into doing a scene partially naked, and I felt I had no choice in the matter,” the 38-year-old actress said on the Tuesday, July 31, episode of The Lost Boys podcast. “I was mortified and I was trembling, and when it was finished, I was crying my eyes out and I had to go on [to] do a very formidable, very strong scene thereafter.”
Lilly found herself in a similar situation the following year. “In season 4, another scene came up where Kate was undressing, and I fought very hard to have that scene be under my control and I failed to control it again,” she recalled. “And so I then said, ‘That’s it, no more. You can write whatever you want — I won’t do it again. I will never take my clothes off on this show again.’ And I didn’t.”
The Ant-Man and the Wasp star then said that she would handle the situation differently now. “I’ve been doing this for nearly 15 years, so I kind of know the ropes,” she said. “I’m a little bit better equipped now to not have uncomfortable experiences come up.”
In fact, Lilly said she passes on roles that involve nude scenes. “It’s not because I think there’s anything wrong with nudity. It’s because I don’t trust that I can be comfortable and safe,” she explained.
“I’m lucky. I’m in a position — a very privileged position — where I’m allowed to be picky,” she continued. “I can be picky. I’ve got enough success under my belt that I can be, and I feel for women who are just struggling to come up in the industry and don’t really know how to navigate that.”
The Golden Globe nominee has plenty of positive memories from her time on the ABC drama, too. She particularly enjoyed working with Michael Emerson, who played Benjamin Linus, and Terry O’Quinn, who starred as John Locke, from whom she learned a valuable lesson.
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“Their immovability in a scene taught me about not bending to make my costars comfortable, which I think is a quintessentially female trait, to always try to accommodate and take care of whoever you’re with,” she said. “But they were never selfish, unkind or egotistical. They were just very strong and talented.”
Us Weekly has reached out to ABC and Bad Robot Productions for comment.
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