Evangeline Lilly finds her wings
Published Jul 16, 2018 06:35 am
LOS ANGELES – The lovely Evangeline Lilly was close to throwing in the towel and getting away from the craziness of Hollywood after her popular TV show “Lost” ended in 2010.
Evangeline Lilly (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/HFPA)
The 38-year-old Canadian actress enjoyed being a mom to two kids with her partner, film production guy Norman Kali, living a regular life in Hawaii away from the spotlight and glamour of Hollywood.
She enjoyed her life of being wife and mother, author of children’s books and learning to surf, among other things.
She revealed, “I have been running a small NGO in Rwanda for about the last nine years and I have been involved for 13 years. That is a big part of my day and that is usually up until this year because this year has been so busy I had to delegate a lot more. But that is usually 50 percent of my work time.
“Then I write some children’s storybooks and if you go to the thesquickerwonkers.com you can see the budding series that I am creating for children.
There are audio books and hard copy books. I am in conversations right now about putting it on the screen.
“Of course, there is my social activism. I am very passionate politically. I am very passionate environmentally. So I try to be as active as possible in those spaces. And to just stay in shape because that is important to me and that sometimes can feel like a big job and a part of my job.”
Then Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” movies came along, followed by the box-office hits “Ant-Man” and then the sequel “Ant-Man And The Wasp.” In 2019, she will reprise her role as Hope van Dyne/The Wasp in an upcoming untitled “Avengers” film in 2019.
So did she teach her children a special love for ants and wasps?
“I have been teaching my children a special love for insects since birth,” she admitted. “Because I have had a special love for insects since I was born and I don’t know why, nobody taught that to me. My mother was the person who would squeal and run away and my father was the person who would stomp on them and throw them down the toilet. I am the person who captures any insect or lizard or any other creature in my home and tenderly puts them outside where they belong.
“I used to do that even with cockroaches. I remember one of the first things that made my partner fall in love with me was that I was doing the dishes one night when he was at my house and an enormous cockroach skittered across the counter. I just reached out and grabbed it. Then I walked to the door and I threw it outside, and he said, ‘I have never seen a woman grab a cockroach with her bare hands before.’”
With the movie, “Ant-Man And The Wasp,” does she feel like she is empowering young girls, we asked.
A scene from 'Ant-Man And The Wasp'
“I love that you said how important and instrumental they can be in solving problems, because one of the things that I think is important to realize is that there have been women in the MCU (Marvel Comics Universe) for a real long time, but there have been 20 MCU films. This is the first one where we are sharing the title.
“The thing that women are saying right now with the #TimesUp movement and the #MeToo movement is, yes, we have so many more rights than we ever used to, and we appreciate those rights. We are grateful for how far we have come. But we are still not equal builders and creators in our culture in society. We are not looked to as the innovators. We are not looked to as the instrumental part of building societies.
“So Hope is not just tough. She is not just strong. She is not just kick ass. She is incredibly intelligent. When it comes to making a plan or executing a plan, it’s often Hope that has all the answers. That’s an incredibly important part of this for me and acknowledging that she is an equal world builder with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).”
So does she feel like a superhero when she goes home to her kids?
“There’s definitely a very clear cut line,” she said. “When I walk onto the set and I am wearing the super suit, I feel like here comes the superhero. I walk with a swagger like the boys do and I feel it and it feels cool. Then when I go home, I am just a dorky mom again. It’s completely gone and my children get a totally different version of me. That said, I believe actors are lying if they claim that there is no part of them in their character. We all bring ourselves to our characters in one way or another. So in some ways you can say that my children’s mom is the Wasp.”
Evangeline Lilly (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/HFPA)
The 38-year-old Canadian actress enjoyed being a mom to two kids with her partner, film production guy Norman Kali, living a regular life in Hawaii away from the spotlight and glamour of Hollywood.
She enjoyed her life of being wife and mother, author of children’s books and learning to surf, among other things.
She revealed, “I have been running a small NGO in Rwanda for about the last nine years and I have been involved for 13 years. That is a big part of my day and that is usually up until this year because this year has been so busy I had to delegate a lot more. But that is usually 50 percent of my work time.
“Then I write some children’s storybooks and if you go to the thesquickerwonkers.com you can see the budding series that I am creating for children.
There are audio books and hard copy books. I am in conversations right now about putting it on the screen.
“Of course, there is my social activism. I am very passionate politically. I am very passionate environmentally. So I try to be as active as possible in those spaces. And to just stay in shape because that is important to me and that sometimes can feel like a big job and a part of my job.”
Then Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” movies came along, followed by the box-office hits “Ant-Man” and then the sequel “Ant-Man And The Wasp.” In 2019, she will reprise her role as Hope van Dyne/The Wasp in an upcoming untitled “Avengers” film in 2019.
So did she teach her children a special love for ants and wasps?
“I have been teaching my children a special love for insects since birth,” she admitted. “Because I have had a special love for insects since I was born and I don’t know why, nobody taught that to me. My mother was the person who would squeal and run away and my father was the person who would stomp on them and throw them down the toilet. I am the person who captures any insect or lizard or any other creature in my home and tenderly puts them outside where they belong.
“I used to do that even with cockroaches. I remember one of the first things that made my partner fall in love with me was that I was doing the dishes one night when he was at my house and an enormous cockroach skittered across the counter. I just reached out and grabbed it. Then I walked to the door and I threw it outside, and he said, ‘I have never seen a woman grab a cockroach with her bare hands before.’”
With the movie, “Ant-Man And The Wasp,” does she feel like she is empowering young girls, we asked.
A scene from 'Ant-Man And The Wasp'
“I love that you said how important and instrumental they can be in solving problems, because one of the things that I think is important to realize is that there have been women in the MCU (Marvel Comics Universe) for a real long time, but there have been 20 MCU films. This is the first one where we are sharing the title.
“The thing that women are saying right now with the #TimesUp movement and the #MeToo movement is, yes, we have so many more rights than we ever used to, and we appreciate those rights. We are grateful for how far we have come. But we are still not equal builders and creators in our culture in society. We are not looked to as the innovators. We are not looked to as the instrumental part of building societies.
“So Hope is not just tough. She is not just strong. She is not just kick ass. She is incredibly intelligent. When it comes to making a plan or executing a plan, it’s often Hope that has all the answers. That’s an incredibly important part of this for me and acknowledging that she is an equal world builder with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).”
So does she feel like a superhero when she goes home to her kids?
“There’s definitely a very clear cut line,” she said. “When I walk onto the set and I am wearing the super suit, I feel like here comes the superhero. I walk with a swagger like the boys do and I feel it and it feels cool. Then when I go home, I am just a dorky mom again. It’s completely gone and my children get a totally different version of me. That said, I believe actors are lying if they claim that there is no part of them in their character. We all bring ourselves to our characters in one way or another. So in some ways you can say that my children’s mom is the Wasp.”