Evangeline Lilly: ‘I don’t believe in forever promises. I don’t think it’s realistic’

Evangeline Lilly

Evangeline Lilly covers the January issue of Ocean Drive to promote The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. The last time we covered her, she revealed herself as a clueless non-feminist who wasn’t interested in “trying to pretend to be a man.” Evangeline talked about how roles came to her doorstep, and she never auditions for anything. This was reason enough for her to believe feminism isn’t necessary in today’s world. Evangeline previously said she would love to be barefoot and pregnant forever (because it’s “like a dream“), which sounded like an interview from a different person.

Adding to this confusion is this new discussion about Evangeline’s partner, Norman Kali. They’ve been together for 5 years and are parents to a 3-year-old son named Kahekili. Evangeline says she’s not into marriage, but she wants to have 6 kids. Kahekili is a stay-at-home dad, which is perfectly cool. But I have no idea how this fits in with Evangeline’s desire to be barefoot, pregnant, and not a feminist:

She doesn’t believe in lifelong love: “In my world, I don’t believe in forever promises. I don’t think it’s realistic.”

She still might marry her dude: “Every other 16-year-old girl wanted to look at bridal magazines; I could not have been more bored with the notion.I have an American son and an American partner, so marriage might logistically make sense at one point. My partner is a stay-at-home father, so if he wants to be on my health plan, or taxwise, or maybe on paper we want to have our I’s dotted and our T’s crossed, but emotionally neither of us really feels the need for it. We love each other today, and we hope we’ll love each other tomorrow.”

She’s thinking of adopting four kids? “What I wanted originally was six kids. I frickin’ love being pregnant. I’m one of the lucky women who just had a blissful pregnancy, but I wanted to adopt four. My partner and I have really been through the ringer in the adoption world and it’s hard, so we’ll see what happens. Life is magically beautiful, and it brings you what is perfect.”

Being a mother “grounded” her: “I spent a lot of time in the clouds. Becoming a mother has really helped me put my feet on the ground and given me a very powerful sense of self and a powerful sense of priority in life. All I have to do is see my son to do that mental check that says, ‘Is this really important? Do you really need to be doing this? Do you really care?’ It helps put everything in perspective when things get stressful or when there’s a demand or pressure on me. At the end of the day, it’s our family, it’s being a mother and a partner and seeing love all around.”

She’s still trying to deal with her fame: “It just didn’t work for me.”

[From Ocean Drive]

Evangeline is an odd duck. I remember an interview she gave to Jay Leno, and she talked about working as a flight attendant. She got angry at a passenger and farted in his face! Perhaps she has impulse control problems? Evangeline famously retired from acting after a 6-season run on Lost. She made a quick comeback for the Hobbit films. She didn’t enjoy fame or anything that came with it. I don’t think she knows what she wants, from her love life or career. We’ll be seeing her soon in Ant-Man. So much for retirement, again.

Evangeline Lilly

Photos courtesy of Ocean Drive, Fame/Flynet & WENN

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65 Responses to “Evangeline Lilly: ‘I don’t believe in forever promises. I don’t think it’s realistic’”

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  1. Joanne_S says:

    Lee!

    …I’m sorry, uh, what was the post about?

  2. Belle Epoch says:

    Nothing is forever but she has a kid?

  3. NewWester says:

    Okay that purple and black dress should belong on Johnny Depp in a Tim Burton movie

  4. olly says:

    I think it is realistic. The expectations out of marriages and just relationships in general are ridiculous.

  5. JWQ says:

    her view on marriages and relationships are the only things that make sense (and I agree)! everything else is either a mess or a contraddiction! Or just her being ignorant and stupid!

    On a side note, I wish she would retire for good because I think she is absolutely devoid of any acting ability and charisma.

  6. smcollins says:

    I don’t know about her. She seems kind of flighty, yet also kind of full of herself. I remember reading an interview of hers and her saying how in high school the other girls were jealous of how pretty she was (she had just begun modeling). Ugh…I just can’t with this one.

  7. perplexed says:

    She looks like Chelsea Handler in these pics. I thought THAT was Chelsea Handler.

  8. GoodNamesAllTaken says:

    Oh shut up.

  9. Norman Bates' Mother says:

    She can’t retire now that her partner is a stay-at-home dad. She said in one of her previous interviews that acting in movies is just a mean to fulfill other goals in her life. They probably had a discussion about this and they decided that it will be much easier for her to support a family by doing a little acting here and there than for him as a production assistant or whatever he would be doing. She had a relatively small role in the Hobbit and she spent most of her time in New Zeeland just vacationing (her words) but he would probably make just a tiny fraction of her salary by working full-time.

    She is annoying and I don’t seek to read or hear her interviews but I’m a Middle-Earth-loonie and I watched most of the behind the scenes stuff and interviews with a cast. She is constantly paired with Lee Pace and she talks so much that he barely ever gets to speak. I wish you would write more about him. Or anyone from the cast but her. But mostly Lee Pace. He’s amazing.

  10. Esmom says:

    I loved her in Lost and typically would love to hear what everyone from that show has to say about just about anything…but now that I’m hearing her talk I wish she’d just shut her yap.

  11. Pamela says:

    “Being a mother “grounded” her”

    She sounds about as far from “gtounded” as it gets.

  12. Sonya says:

    On a totally shallow point – I feel like she never has a good hair situation. On Lost her hair aggravated me – lol – I KNOW, island and harsh living and all, but it still did. For some reason her hair is always off to me. lol
    I did love Kate, though, and I wish she would never give any interviews so she could just live forever as Kate in my head. 🙂

  13. serena says:

    That cover is so unfortunate.. such an ugly haircut!

  14. **sighs** says:

    I just came to say….Lee Pace! And Andy Serkis! Hoorah!

    Lilly sounds lik a dimbulb.

  15. lisa says:

    She sounds like a typical space cadet artist, tbh. Loved Tauriel and wish her the best.

  16. Cara says:

    I found her portrayl of Tauriel distracting and annoying- thought Liv Tyler did a great job capturing the female elf role, but not Ms Lilly.

    Bring on Thranduil and I’ll be happy!

    • I Choose Me says:

      Yes! I saw BOTFA on Sunday and enjoyed it a lot. I greedily drank in every frame that Lee Pace was in and thought that every scene WITHOUT Tauriel was the better for it.

  17. Ronia says:

    I agree with her, on the relationships and the “forever” stuff. Nothing is forever in this world when it comes to adults and their interactions. We all make choices on a daily basis, things change, people change. The rest is blah, though.

  18. Ginger says:

    Marriage as a formality? How romantic! And I’m sure the Hobbit role was just thrown at her? How random would that be? Who should we get to play this secondary elf character? Oh, I know! Evangeline Lilly. Right….

    • Norman Bates' Mother says:

      She used to date Dominic Monaghan aka Merry from LOTR for many years, so it’s possible that Jackson or people from the crew knew her and decided to hire her instead of doing the casting. Which is not a nice thing for Dominic if the rumor that she cheated on him with a mutual friend is true. They both worked on Lost and her current guy was a PA on Lost, which makes it sound very plausible.

      • Esmom says:

        Ooh, I hadn’t heard that. I always thought she and Monaghan were an odd match but I don’t like the thought of “Charlie” being hurt like that. Boo.

      • Bridget says:

        Its surprising when you consider how tight the LOTR crew is, and the fact that there was no way she would have been considered for that role unless someone made a call for her as a personal favor, because she wasn’t exactly going to be anyone’s first choice otherwise. In fact I thought she and Monaghan had a pretty low key split, but apparently not.

      • A mascarada says:

        She got with Norman around season 5 of Lost. Long after she broke up with Dominic. Dominic left the show at the end of season 3.
        He’s just a bitter hobbit.

      • Bridget says:

        Monaghan left the show but they were still seend together for a while afterwards. Those two were together for 4-5 years.

      • sdh says:

        For what it’s worth, I used to work with a guy who previously worked at a Canadian summer camp where Evangeline and her then husband also worked, as camp counselors. According to my colleague, they married quite young and hadn’t been together very long before she up and left him (and the camp) to go to Hollywood – he never heard from her again. I wonder if this early experience might have soured her on marriage?

    • Jayna says:

      @Esmom, Dominic tweeted this last year in response to a tweet. He seemed bitter towards her.

      @DomsWildThings
      “MT@CarlMolony: @DomsWildThings Evangeline looked unreal in the Hobbit , man oh man” 👌 ❤–nah. I don’t date cheaters.
      3:00 PM – 18 Dec 2013″

      @DomsWildThings
      Follow
      If I’m a douche because you don’t like what I say that’s not my concern.But I don’t choose to lie on twitter #truthhurts

      • Norman Bates' Mother says:

        I wasn’t sure if I should believe it but that confirms it. Makes me wonder if that affected her work-relationship with Orlando, Elijah and others in any way or their friendship with Dominic. Elijah is Dominic’s best friend and Orlando has been close with him as well. He talked about their mutual plans to move to New Zeeland during recent Comic-Con while Evangeline was sitting next to him. Awkward.

      • Bridget says:

        After the LOTR movies and Lost, has Dominic just made enough money that he doesn’t need to worry about what he says? Because between that and the Matthew Fox stuff he is unusually candid.

    • Ginger says:

      Well, all of this makes more sense now! Thanks for the info ladies! I never watched Lost or followed it exclusively but I do recall that Dominic was on the show.

  19. Ag says:

    i thought she was married to one of the hobbits?

    • Seán says:

      She dated Dominic Monaghan for a while but they split up. Monaghan played the hobbit Merry in The Lord of the Rings movies. He played Charlie in Lost.

      • Ag says:

        yes, i recall that, i just didn’t remember his name (and was too lazy to google). i thought they were married for some reason.

  20. Angelica says:

    Well…I don’t want to marry my partner either and I only consider it time to time for health care and tax reasons. So I agree with her on that.

  21. Jayna says:

    I think she might have ADD or ADHD.

  22. Amanda says:

    I hope she loves her little boy forever at least, if nothing else.

  23. Lucy says:

    I’ve never seen her in anything but from what I’ve heard, she has the charisma and acting abilities of a wet blanket. Her stupid interviews don’t help much either.

    • Shijel says:

      Looks, too. “Pretty plain” personified. Her name-recognition as an actor is a freakin’ mystery to me.

  24. kri says:

    she should never have let Kaley Cuoco cut her hair. Another day, another idiot from H’wood.

  25. llc says:

    She is stupid and entitled, not odd. She should stop givy interviews. She comes off badly every time. Or she could hire a skilled publicist and actually listen to her or him.

  26. CH2 says:

    Her dude is stay at home? Wow, she is quite possibly one of the more extreme examples of someone who benefits from feminism but completely misunderstands it.

    • Lucy2 says:

      Yup- her entire lifestyle is due to the hard fight for equality, and she has no idea.
      I think she’s really pretty, but I just don’t get her when she does interviews. I also don’t get her choice in hair cuts.

  27. Tiffany says:

    Yeah, she pulled this crap on Ellen during her Lost tenure and then a infomercial for singles she did in Canada. She showed a little humility after that.

  28. lunchcoma says:

    Oh, I think it’s pretty clear what she wants. She wants to work just enough to maintain her lifestyle and to have a partner who’s there to hang out with her when she’s not-working. Which…okay, I can see that being tempting if you’ve got a steady source of income from Lost residuals and can pick up acting jobs here and there without much effort. I wish she wouldn’t try to drag feminism into it, though, since most of the rest of us don’t have that set of options. She’s neither a traditional housewife nor a breadwinner -she’s a rich person who works very little because she can. We’ve always had those.

  29. Mop top says:

    That hair is doing her no favors.

  30. Jen43 says:

    She is an awful interview, isn’t she? On a positive note, a friend of mine met her during a LOST meet and greet, and said she was very gracious and nice to the fans. That always makes me give her a bit of a pass.

  31. Sarah says:

    Retire already. She was the worst thing in the last 2 Hobbit movies. Aside from the fact that they specifically created a character for her out of thin air, the character was then just awful. Didn’t like her on LOST and I have yet to find the vehicle where here “talent” can shine.

  32. Curious Cole says:

    I thought she might be trying an ill-advised copy of Angelina until I read her “wringer” comment. Anyone who takes on that mountain of paperwork and heartache is serious about adopting. Wouldn’t it be a smoother process if they were married? Makes her comments even more insipid, I wish she really would retire from acting. She could focus on writing more children’s books.

    I like how they styled her hair for the cover, she should wear it like that instead of the lazy shag waves she favors.

  33. carol says:

    I don’t know. I think that people complicate life. IF you wanna get married and grow old together pick someone who meshes with your personality and has similar morals/values/life goals. IT’s ok if you change – you won’t grow apart if you put effort into your marriage and communicate.

  34. Mo says:

    She’s always given uppity, annoying interviews. When Lost had just started she would make all these judgy comments about other actresses being tramps, how she was too beautiful to have female friends and her looks always made her objectified, and she was always super sanctimonious about her religious morals. I mean, fine if you have them, not so fine if you wave them around to highlight how superior you think you are to everyone else. And she very well may be a “nice” person to others, but she’s not a person with much insight or self-awareness.