Evangeline Lilly Quotes & Sayings

In high school, people wanted to find the worst in me. — Evangeline Lilly

Writing is my number one passion. I've written two novels. I've written a screenplay. I also write short stories and poetry. — Evangeline Lilly

The way I've been able to embrace fame is by realizing that celebrity is just a means to send whatever message you want out into the world. — Evangeline Lilly

I've been astounded to discover how good to their teams and crew that Marvel are. They're so collaborative, so smart with their stories. They have rich, dynamic characters which are so much fun to play. — Evangeline Lilly

I always wear something slightly masculine. — Evangeline Lilly

I felt like I was a good woman, a good person. But I was sinking deeper and deeper into depression, because my soul wasn't living. I was purposely holding down my soul and my spirit. It was dying inside of me. — Evangeline Lilly

I definitely come down on the spiritual side. I think very few things in life happen by chance. — Evangeline Lilly

The people on my mum's side of the family are atheist intellectuals who are ueber-proper. My dad's side of the family are missionaries who are more comfortable sitting around in sweatpants than they are in a five-star restaurant. But those two influences converged in my life. — Evangeline Lilly

If you watch a film from beginning to end, with no women in it, it's really difficult. — Evangeline Lilly

I was a die-hard fan of these books [The Hobbit] before the films ever came out. And when I say die-hard, I wasn't the person who could speak Elvish, but I really loved them. — Evangeline Lilly

I hated being a flight attendant. I did it for a month and then quit. — Evangeline Lilly

I'm a bit of a pick-pocket on-set. If something is small enough to go in my pocket, and it will be neat memorabilia, it's gone. — Evangeline Lilly

The reality is when you open a door, there is no sense in closing it - so I would never say, 'I'll never act again.' But it's definitely not my priority. — Evangeline Lilly

Your mind and soul are the kings of your physique way more than any exercise you do. — Evangeline Lilly

I am who I am and I am what I am. And it's beautiful. And it's okay even if it doesn't look like the sexiest Victoria Secret model. It also boils down to my interactions with people. — Evangeline Lilly

I love getting older! — Evangeline Lilly

In my world, I don't believe in forever promises. I don't think it's realistic. — Evangeline Lilly

It's not your circumstances that make or break your day. It's your attitude! — Evangeline Lilly

I'm surrounded by people who care about me and love me. I have a great job. I have wonderful roommates who take care of me. I have a family who adores me. — Evangeline Lilly

When I was young I was soft spoken and a little bit timid and passive. My dream then was to be a ballerina or a figure skater - something very delicate. — Evangeline Lilly

Even if you're unhappy, just pretend that you're happy. Eventually, your smile will be contagious to yourself. I had to learn that. I used to think, 'I'm being fake,' but you know what? Better to be fake and happy than real and miserable. — Evangeline Lilly

I think my style is very eclectic, because I love so many different things. And, that's true, too, in almost every aspect of my life. I can go from really edgy to tailored and professional, and I just love to change things up. — Evangeline Lilly

Walking is a very underestimated exercise in North America. It's all run hard, lift weights and push your body, but walking is wonderful for elongating the body and posture. — Evangeline Lilly

I've been careful what I've put my name to. — Evangeline Lilly

When I hear the words 'Women should be barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen,' I think, 'What. A. Dream.' There are no negative connotations to it. — Evangeline Lilly

When I pick a role, one of the things that I aspire to is that somebody's parent will come up to me after the film has come out and say, "My daughter idealizes that character. You're her hero." That's what I aim for. We're in the business of making heroes. — Evangeline Lilly

I actually write as a passion, as something I actually am more passionate about than acting. — Evangeline Lilly

Around the time I graduated from high school, I decided better to underachieve and have friendship than to overachieve and be alone. — Evangeline Lilly

There's a massive part of me that can be bold and courageous ... very strong and very assertive and independent, almost to a fault sometimes. — Evangeline Lilly

I was fortunate enough to be one of those stories where I was scouted on the street by somebody and actually refused to go to the agency, and was approached on different occasions and finally kind of caved and said, 'OK, I'll try it and see what happens.' — Evangeline Lilly

'Real Steel' was this lovely little piece where I held a cup of coffee and talked to Hugh Jackman for three weeks. And that sounded kind of nice. — Evangeline Lilly

Peter Jackson has just really earned the right to be Tolkien's torchbearer on screen. — Evangeline Lilly

There are jobs to be created on both sides of the climate argument. Whether we are investing in oil or sun, coal or wind, gas or algae, the economy will be stimulated by the investment. The economy, unlike each of us, is not swayed by ideology. — Evangeline Lilly

I don't know if any of you feel this way, but it's like eventually, you see a woman come on screen and you go, "Oh, thank God!" You just sort of need a break from all this testosterone, which happened, I think, in one of my films, The Hurt Locker. I was in it for like five minutes, and people were like, "You were in that movie!" And I was like, "Well, kind of." And they were like, "No, you were!" 'Cause they needed a woman! — Evangeline Lilly

There is a little bit of evil in all of us, and it's very easy to draw that out. — Evangeline Lilly

I dance around my living room to cheesy '80s aerobics music until I'm sweating really hard! — Evangeline Lilly

It's so important for women to say to other women, 'I like myself how I am.' But it's hard because in your heart of hearts you are thinking, 'I don't really.' But you have to learn to say it. Imagine what a world it would be if people felt good about themselves the whole time. — Evangeline Lilly

I got called and was told, "We'd like you to do The Hobbit", which was my favorite of all of them when I was a kid - "And we want you to play a character that's not in the books", I gulped and hesitated, but then I went, "These guys know this world, and they represent this world so well, that I actually think they've earned the right to have a little play." — Evangeline Lilly

We decided to have the baby at home because we wanted it to be a natural birth, and it turns out that it was 30 hours of natural. Eight hours of pushing - that's the part that men don't understand. Women go, 'Oh, dear, oh, dear God, eight hours of pushing?' And the men are like, 'Okay, eight hours of pushing.' — Evangeline Lilly

A month and a half after my first audition, I won the role on 'Lost.' — Evangeline Lilly

I am a classy dame. — Evangeline Lilly

On 'Ant-Man', I took a rubber stamp from the office of Hank Pym, who's played by Michael Douglas. — Evangeline Lilly

I have been a bit of a reluctant actress since the get-go, since the beginning of 'Lost.' — Evangeline Lilly

'Why are we here?' 'What is our purpose? 'Is there an afterlife?' 'Is there a God?' 'Is it all about science?' Those are big questions, and usually, TV is a little scared to go there. — Evangeline Lilly

Acting is something I appreciate, and I think it's been an amazing experience. But I'm not passionate about acting the way you probably should be to call yourself an actor. — Evangeline Lilly

I like to be around people who make me laugh. It's one of my favorite things on a set. I hate it when people take themselves serious in a film set. — Evangeline Lilly

My introduction into Marvel world was Comic-Con 2014 where I really had to take a step back and go, 'What have I walked into? What is this place? It's wild, and there's all these crazy rockstars walking around - who are all older than me, which was really weird. I was like, 'I feel too old to be in a superhero movie,' and they're like 10 years older than me. — Evangeline Lilly

I've had to find my sanity. — Evangeline Lilly

Somebody could take a picture of me from across the room, and I would feel like I wanted to rip their face off. — Evangeline Lilly

You can't have a movie with a group of people that are significant players in the story, that push forward the plot, without introducing at least one or two of them. — Evangeline Lilly

I love my home. It's the only thing I really spend money on. I don't really spend a lot of money on anything else. No fancy cars. No designer clothes. — Evangeline Lilly

I tended to be a solitary young girl, and I still am. I would like to find a quiet corner and color in my coloring book. When I think back, I made that corner mine, not really caring about the rest of the house. — Evangeline Lilly

One of the great pleasures of working in Middle Earth is you get to be another being. — Evangeline Lilly

I've not worked with Martin Freeman. I've hung out with him, but I've not worked with him. — Evangeline Lilly

I wasn't actually going to see the original film [Lord of the Ring], because I didn't think it was possible that a film could represent the books appropriately. So I was protesting, and I wasn't going to see them. And then my family all took a jaunt together, the entire family, to see the movies, and were like, "What, you're just going to stay home?" So I saw the movies and was thoroughly impressed that Peter Jackson managed to make my vision of the book come to life, as well as my sister's and my father's, and my aunt's and my uncle's, everyone's. — Evangeline Lilly

Diets are a fool's errand. — Evangeline Lilly

I consider acting a day job - it's not my dream; it's not my be-all, end-all. — Evangeline Lilly

I seem to be landing really great locations on a lot of my work. I hope that continues, knock on wood. — Evangeline Lilly

For a human audience, seeing things that are slightly more otherworldly and beyond human power is always really fun and exciting to watch. — Evangeline Lilly

Wonder Woman was my favorite superhero as a little girl. I still have a huge girl crush on Wonder Woman; I think she's amazing. — Evangeline Lilly

I know I can never work in a comedy because I can't keep a goddamn straight face. — Evangeline Lilly

'The Hobbit' didn't include female characters at all and was a very linear story, a book for children, really. — Evangeline Lilly

I'm not a highly social person. I'm a highly productive person. — Evangeline Lilly

Ironically, when I hit adolescence, I was approached about modeling and acting all the time. And, for five years, I said, "No, I'm not interested. I want a simple life, I don't want to be in the spotlight." — Evangeline Lilly

I don't watch TV. When people at my house try to talk about TV, I'm like, 'Ah, I have no idea what I'm talking about.' — Evangeline Lilly

I would love to pretend I don't diet, but I work very hard. I stay active and eat very healthy. Anybody who says otherwise is either unhealthy or lying! I will admit that I'm addicted to sugar - licorice, Jujubees and jelly candies. And I actually love bran muffins! — Evangeline Lilly

That is the greatest source of my anxiety on this film [The Hobbit], is that I'm going to be lynched. — Evangeline Lilly

The world is full of opportunities, and I want to try as many as I possibly can. — Evangeline Lilly

I didn't grow up in a home that glorified Hollywood. We didn't watch TV. We didn't have a lot of magazines around. — Evangeline Lilly

I was a massive Tolkien fan. 'The Hobbit' was ... my favorite book as a little girl, and the Silvan Elves were my favorite characters in the book. — Evangeline Lilly

I just really like ants, and I really like science. I was interested and curious about the quantum world and the physics behind how it all works. — Evangeline Lilly

My favorite parts about 'The Battle of Five Armies' were the moments where you could clearly see that we were looking at New Zealand. That it wasn't done in post, it wasn't CGI, it was the beautiful, incredible creation of Mother Nature in all of her splendor. — Evangeline Lilly

I have these huge, pointed ears. They're like three times the size of Orlando Bloom's ears. And I think he has ear envy, I love my ears. — Evangeline Lilly

As I grew older, I developed a very innate passion for art. I was actually pretty good at it. — Evangeline Lilly

Nature inspires us. Not being able to reach out and touch it, or see it, makes me get really antsy. — Evangeline Lilly

My son was three months old when I started filming 'The Hobbit,' and I was still breastfeeding. — Evangeline Lilly

My son is wonderful. He is amazing. — Evangeline Lilly

I think I'm not always what I seem. Most people, when they get to know me, say, 'You know, when I first met you ... ' People initially think I'm a snob because I'm intensely private. — Evangeline Lilly

I am so glad that I get to maintain a relatively down-to-earth lifestyle. — Evangeline Lilly

To put it simply - you know, a lot of people believe that the benefit of this job is fame and fortune. I believe that you pay for the fortune through the fame. I don't buy into the notion that being famous is somehow a good thing, or an exciting thing, or a wonderful thing. — Evangeline Lilly

If you can't sit in a cafe quietly and be ignored, how can you observe human nature and write a story? — Evangeline Lilly

I like ambiguity. I think it's so much more interesting to play than an overtly good or an overtly evil person. — Evangeline Lilly

'The Squickerwonkers' was the story I wrote when I was on 'The Hobbit.' And I brought it to Comic-Con and sold out a thousand copies I had printed. — Evangeline Lilly

I used to cry myself to sleep wishing I was ugly because of the way men leered at and disrespected me. — Evangeline Lilly

Every night I bring home flowers and burn candles. And I have a real sense that home is what starts everything inside of you. — Evangeline Lilly

After about five hours of pushing, my midwife and my birthing assistant said, 'You know, we have a few suggestions.' And I was like, 'Really? After five hours of pushing you have a few suggestions? You couldn't have told me five minutes in?' — Evangeline Lilly

Every woman is after a kind of classy image. — Evangeline Lilly

I love getting older! I really believe that a woman doesn't reach her peak until her 40s. — Evangeline Lilly

I'm very picky when it comes to men. I come across a man who I'm really attracted to about once every five years. — Evangeline Lilly

In every one of the 'Squickerwonker' books, we will explore a new Squickerwonker character and their vice and how their vice generally leads to their undoing. — Evangeline Lilly

It's a surprisingly sacrificial job being an actor. — Evangeline Lilly

My character is different from all of the Elves you've met before, in that she's really young. And I keep telling journalists this because I've really focused on that in my performance. I'm trying to distinguish her from all of these incredibly sage and wise Elves that have lived for thousands of years. — Evangeline Lilly

Outside of acting, the person that I admire the most is my mother. — Evangeline Lilly

I'm good at looking good with weapons and stunts. But if you put a bull's eye in front of me and asked me to hit it, I'd say the chances of me hitting it are about one in a million! — Evangeline Lilly

If I went for too long without writing, I would start to feel like something inside me was dying. — Evangeline Lilly

I'm a bit delusional, but every time I do a job, I think I'm retired. — Evangeline Lilly

I had my baby outside in a thunderstorm. It was really romantic. — Evangeline Lilly

Every other 16-year-old girl wanted to look at bridal magazines; I could not have been more bored with the notion. — Evangeline Lilly

I have two roommates, so it's a challenge to keep the house the way I like. — Evangeline Lilly

I bought almost every single thing that I furnished my house with at the Salvation Army in Hawaii. All second hand. Some of them are kind of retro, and some of them you'd never know. — Evangeline Lilly