Evangeline Lilly revealed she’s “stepping away” from the Hollywood spotlight but “might return” one day.
“I am so filled with joy and contentment today as I live out my vision,” the Ant-Man and the Wasp star, 44, wrote via Instagram on Monday, June 3. “Praise God, I feel so grateful for my blessings. Stepping away from what seems like the obvious choice (wealth and fame) can feel scary at times, but stepping into your dharma replaces the fear with fulfillment.”
She added, “I might return to Hollywood one day, but, for now, this is where I belong. A new season has arrived, and I AM READY…and I AM HAPPY. 🕊️💪🏽😊.”
In her post, Lilly shared a 2006 video of herself where she shared her hopes for the future. “Ten years from now, where would I like to be?” she said in the throwback clip. “I am terrified to admit this to the rest of the acting world but, ideally, 10 years from now I would like to be a retired actress, and I would like to have a family, and I’d like to be writing, and potentially, maybe, influencing people’s lives in more humanitarian ways.”
In her caption, Lilly included a shout-out to the people who sent her the videos she used for the post. “Thank you @lost_theothers for digging up this (nearly twenty-year-old) footage of me speaking out my dreams under (what looks like) a full moon 🌝,” she wrote. “And thank you to @femalepoetssociety for digging up this (much older) footage of the incredible #mayaangelou perfectly articulating how I feel about life.”
Lilly and ex Norman Kali share son Kahekili, 13, and a daughter, 8, whose name has not been publicly revealed. (Lilly was previously married to Murray Hone from 2003 to 2004 and dated Lost costar Dominic Monaghan from 2004 to 2007.)
After making appearances on several TV shows, Lilly landed her breakthrough role as Kate Austen on the sci-fi series Lost. She later starred alongside Hugh Jackman in 2011’s Real Steel before portraying Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man and reprising her role in several other Marvel Cinematic Universe films. She also played elf Tauriel in 2013’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and its 2014 sequel.
While Lilly may be stepping away from the spotlight, it doesn’t mean she hasn’t had fun along the way. Last year, the actress made an NSFW comment about her Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania costar Michael Douglas on the The Jonathan Ross Show.
“There was this day on set, we were doing a scene in a restaurant and we were in a waiting room, so they filmed the waiting room with extras and there were children. I turned to Michael and [Michelle Pfeiffer], and I said, ‘You know, you guys are real GILFs,’” she recalled at the time. “Michael had no idea. He said, ‘What’s a GILF?’ Instead of being cool about it, in front of a room full of children, I went, ‘It’s a grandpa I’d like to f–k.’”
