Evangeline Lilly recalls pressure to strip for ‘Lost’

Lilly in “Ant-Man and the Wasp”

Evangeline Lilly told The LOST Boys podcast recently that she wasn’t interested in doing nude scenes because of incidents that required her to go partly naked in the popular TV series “Lost,” where she played plane crash survivor Kate Austen.

“In Season 3, I had a bad experience on set with being cornered into doing a scene partially naked, and I felt I had no choice in the matter,” the “Ant-Man and the Wasp” star disclosed. “I was mortified, and I was trembling when it finished. I was crying my eyes out and had to go on [and] do a very strong scene thereafter.”

It was déjà vu for her a year later, she recounted: “In Season 4, another scene came up where Kate was undressing, and I fought very hard to have that scene under my control. And I failed to control it again. 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.’ And I didn’t.”

The show ran for six seasons, from 2004 to 2010. Its producers JJ Abrams, Jack Bender, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof issued an apology to Lilly in a joint statement: “Our response to Evie’s comments in the media this morning was to immediately reach out to her to profoundly apologize for the experience she detailed while working on ‘Lost.’ We have not yet connected with her, but remain deeply and sincerely sorry. No person should ever feel unsafe at work. Period.”

After “Lost,” Lilly appeared in two “The Hobbit” films, as well as “Ant-Man” and its recent sequel. —OLIVER PULUMBARIT