30 Aspiring Facts About Evangeline Lilly - The Fan Favorite Wasp From MCU

23 March 2019, 10:24 am EDT By Ruby Karnick

Evangeline Lilly first gained worldwide recognition with her role as Kate Austen in the TV series "Lost," for which she has a Golden Globe Award nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award to her name. She has recently turned heads with her portrayal of the superhero Hope van Dyne / Wasp in the movies "Ant-Man" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp." Here are some really surprising facts about the Canadian actress:

About her role as Hope van Dyne / Wasp in the "Ant-Man" movie was comparatively much smaller in the drafts of Edgar Wright, but was beefed up significantly during rewrites and that she had also provided some ideas and inputs for her character.
It was reported that she got the chance to meet Peter Jackson, only after the filming of "The Lords of the Rings" trilogy was completed. Jackson, who was very much impressed with her, promised to have her, in any J.R.R. Tolkien's story, that was made into film.
Keeping up his promise to her, when the filming of "The Hobbit" was initiated, Jackson got in touch with her, informing her about the creation of a character named Silvan Elf Tauriel for her.
For her most popular role as Kate Austen in the TV series "Lost," she was actually one of the last actors to be cast, because she was a Canadian citizen and the producers were concerned with her obtaining appropriate U.S. employment visa allowing her to stay long enough to shoot the entire series.
As a result, all of her scenes were pushed to the end of shooting schedule, and in fact, it was not until the crew had shot almost every scene without Kate that she was granted the O-1 visa and signed on.
The same day the much awaited O-1 visa was granted to her, after nearly 20 tries, the producers of the "Lost," had her on a plane in Canada and was flown directly to Hawaii, for filming all her scenes.
Among a total of 75 women who auditioned for the part of Kate Austen, Damon Lindelof, the writer and co-creator of the series, and J. J. Abrams, the executive producer and co-creator of the series, felt Lilly to be "the girl," while fast-forwarding through the audition tape.
Nicole Evangeline Lilly was born on August 3, 1979 in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. She along with her two siblings was raised in British Columbia, by her father, a home economics teacher, and her mother, a middle school secretary who also ran a day-care service.
In preparation for her role as Silvan Elf Tauriel, she underwent vigorous training in swordplay and archery. She also reportedly studied the Elvish language.
She attended the University of British Columbia, for a major in International Relations, being interested in humanitarian causes and world development. However, her studies was cut short, with her role as Kate Austen on "Lost,"

During her time at the University, she founded and ran a world development and human rights committee. At the age of 18, being influenced by her religion, she visited the Philippine Islands, and lived in a grass hut in the jungles with a missionary group.
She was first discovered by a Ford Modeling Agency agent while walking the streets of Kelowna, British Columbia, following which she landed several roles in commercials.
She was cast in a series of several late-night ads for a dating hotline called LiveLinks in the year 2003, which reportedly ran for several commercials for a dating hotline called LiveLinks, despite her popularity rising with her role in "Lost."
Her house in Kailua, Hawaii was destroyed by a fire set by an electrical problem, along with all her possessions, on December 20, 2006. During the time of fire, she was on the set of "Lost," and luckily nobody else was hurt in the accident.
Before hitting it big with her role as Kate Austen in "Lost," she reportedly worked as an extra on film sets to help pay her university tuition, and can be seen in various episodes of "Smallville," "Dead Like Me," "Tru Calling," and even in movies like "Freddy vs. Jason," "White Chicks," and "Stealing Sinatra."
She is all set to reprise her role as Hope van Dyne / Wasp in the 2019 movie "Avengers: Endgame," which she claims to remind her heavily of her career playing Kate Austen in the fourth season of the TV series "Lost," which employed "flashforwards" as a central plot device.
Her first book "The Squickerwonkers," was released on July 18, 2013, at the San Diego Comic-Con. She claimed that the idea for the book was conceived when she was only 14 years old.
In the year 2007, she was voted as #1 Sexiest Woman on Television by TV Guide, while FHM named her the Top Sexiest. She was also ranked as one among the People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People."
In the movie "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," the love triangle between Kili, Tauriel and Legolas, was not intended to be complicated, but just a simple love story between Kili and Tauriel, with her relationship with Legolas being strictly platonic. However, during re-shoots, the studio forced the idea of love triangle though Lilly and Jackson hated it.
In the year 2010, she announced that she would like to take a short retirement, especially with her top priority - being a good mother. She reportedly turned down a number of film offers, but flew to Los Angeles to meet director Shawn Levy, after reading his script for "Real Steel."

It is reported that she shared the first publicity still of Hope as Wasp from the movie "Ant-Man and the Wasp," on the 100th birthday of Janet's co-creator, Jack Kirby.
She reportedly auctioned off custom lingerie in support of Task Brasil, "a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the lost street children of Brazil by providing them secure housing" in the year 2009.
She has been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth novels since she was thirteen years old and being cast in one movie is like a dream come true for her.
She was voted as one of the Breakout Stars of the year 2004, by Entertainment Weekly magazine. The next year, she was ranked at #2 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.
Her character of Kate Austen in the "Lost," can be often seen climbing trees, throughout the entire series, which is because Lilly, being very athletic, loves to climb trees herself.
Before entering the acting career, she tried her hand in a variety of other jobs including flight attendant, waitress, and even completed oil changes on big rigs, in an effort to earn money for University.
Her performance in the fourth episode "Eggtown" of the fourth season of the TV series "Lost," was praised by Robert Bianco of USA Today, saying that it was almost worthy of a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series nomination.
She married Canadian Murray Hone in the year 2003, but the relationship ended in divorce the very next year. She started dating her "Lost" co-star Dominic Monaghan in the year 2009. However, the duo reportedly broke up in the year 2009.
Since 2010, she has been dating Norman Kali, an assistant director, known for his work on "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug." She gave birth to their son, Kahekili on May 21, 2011, after 30-hour long labor. The couple's second child - a daughter was born in October 2015.
She is said to have auctioned off three lunches in Vancouver, Honolulu, and Los Angeles to help widows and orphans in Rwanda in the year 2010. Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African mainland, where she had made numerous trips as part of her charity work.