48 AMERICANWAY
MAY 15 2007
On the ABCmegahit
Lost
, she plays Kate, a beautiful, fearless fu-
gitive who falls prey to all manner of misadventure. But Evangeline
Lilly’s real-life escapades are almost aswild as anythingher television
characterexperiences.Born ina tiny towncalledFortSaskatchewan, in
Alberta, Canada (whereher fatherwas ahome economics teacher and
hermotherworkedasabeautyconsultant), shehasalwaysbeendrawn
to the great outdoors. “Thewinter lasts pretty long there, six to seven
months,” shesaysofherhometown. “SoIwas thekidwhowas trekking
to school in a full snowsuit and a ski mask, liftingmy legs abovemy
thighs to try toget over the snow.”
¶
Lillywaswalkingon the street in
less hazardous conditions when shewas discovered by a talent agent.
At first, acting was not her thing — and modeling certainly wasn’t.
She was headed to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver
to study international relations. But she kept the agent’s card, just in
case, because, she says, “You just never knowwhen having a contact
out in the city would be a good thing.” Sure enough, needing tuition
money and tired of working “full-time jobswhile going to school full-
time andhaving that compromise
[
her
]
education,” she pulledout the
card, called theagent, andwas soondoingcommercials,whicheventu-
ally led to her starring role on
Lost
.
¶
But we’re getting ahead of our
story.Here’sa trip intoEvangelineLilly’searly life inVancouver, aswell
as someofwhat she’s learnedalong theway.
Iunderstandyouarequitetheoutdoorswom-
an, on and off the set of
Lost
, which makes
Vancouver a perfect place for you. Give us
a sense of the layout of the city.
Vancou-
ver is actually a city verymuch likeHono-
lulu, ironically, in that it is surrounded by
mountains and ocean. It is very isolated. It
is metropolitan in its center and core, but,
primarily,most peoplewho live inVancou-
ver are nature lovers and very outdoorsy. A
lot of people there will snowboard and ski
and mountain climb and run and cycle.
When you come into the city, for themost
part, it does not feel like a city. It doesn’t
feel likeManhattanuntil you get right into
the downtown core, which is, actually, very
much like Manhattan. Downtown’s, like,
a tiny little island, and it’s surrounded by
greater Vancouver. It’s a grid; it’s a perfect
grid. Once you are in the downtown core,
everything maps out relatively easily. But
greater Vancouver sprawls out over miles
andmiles andmiles.
Wheredoyou like to staywhenyougoback?
Probablymy very favorite hotel inVancou-
ver is theOpusHotel inYaletown.Yaletown
Statue inStanleyParkhonor-
ingOlympic sprinterHarry
WinstonJerome, named
BritishColumbia’sAthlete of
theCentury in 1971
