Evangeline Lilly Says Nude Scene in Lost
Actress Evangeline Lilly recently described her experience of discomfort acting in a scene on Lost. Lilly portrayed the character of Kate Austen on the mysterious TV series – a fugitive who, like the rest of the survivors of Oceanic 815, had her backstory and motivations revealed through numerous flashbacks.
While Kate was one of the major characters of the show, several of her storylines were not that well-received by fans, with a significant slump in the story being a love triangle between Kate, Jack (Matthew Fox), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) in season 3. While Lost made Lilly a star, it’s not something she always looks fondly back on.
Lilly described an incident of discomfort on the set of Lost in an episode of The LOST Boys, a podcast devoted to the ABC television show. Lilly cited a case that occurred during production of the third season of the show in which she had to appear partially nude:
“In season 3, I’d had a bad experience on set with being basically cornered into doing a scene partially naked, and I felt had no choice in the matter. And I was mortified and I was trembling, and when it finished, I was crying my eyes out and had to go on and do a very formidable, very strong scene thereafter.”
Lilly goes on to continue a similar incident that occurred during the production of season 4, with the actress fighting against doing a scene that called for Kate Austen to undress; Lilly describes herself as being unable to control the situation at the time. After these incidents, Lilly refused to do any more scenes for the show involving nudity. Still, Lilly shared fan sentiments in disliking the love triangle that her character was involved in; she felt that Kate had a “diminishing amount of autonomy” as the plot progressed and culminated in Lost’s controversial ending.
The season 3 scene that was referenced is likely a moment in episode 6, “I Do.” A Kate-centric episode, one particular scene had Kate and Sawyer locked up in a cage by “The Others,” eventually culminating in a sex scene between the two that involved nudity – at least, as far as network standards allowed. Meanwhile, Jack was shown this through a live camera feed on the Hydra Station. The scene was a bit gratuitous, and was in the midst of an era of the show that was considered to have a plodding plot.
Modern Hollywood is currently reckoning with the idea of accountability on film and television sets. Stories have come to light about toxic and uncomfortable environments on sets, but as the tone in conversation is changing, Lilly had more of an opportunity to describe her own experiences in such an environment. While the context is certainly different, this experience slightly echos Uma Thurman’s own negative experience on the set of Kill Bill, with an actress being pressured into uncomfortable and compromising situations. With actresses like Lost’s Evangeline Lilly speaking out openly about regrettable experiences, Hollywood can work towards preventing such incidents again – but there’s still a long way to go.
