Movie stars just don’t walk away at the top of their game.
But one did.
And a top actress quit Hollywood for this shocking reason.
Evangeline Lilly retires from acting
Evangeline Lilly burst in the scene playing the role of Kate Austen in ABC’s hit TV series Lost.
Lilly then took on the role of Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit movie series.
And Lilly achieved her biggest mainstream success playing Hope Van Dyne in Marvel’s Antman trilogy and Avengers: End Game, the biggest movie of all time.
But just as Marvel is gearing up for three more Avengers movies, Lilly is quitting Hollywood.
Lilly shared a video on her Instagram that she said was from nearly 20 years ago when she was still working on Lost.
In a caption on the post, Lilly said this video reminded her of her original goal when breaking out in Hollywood.
“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 🌝 And thank you to @femalepoetssociety for digging up this (much older) footage of the incredible #mayaangelou perfectly articulating how I feel about life,” Lilly wrote.
Lilly thanked God and announced she was stepping away from acting.
“I am so filled with joy and contentment today as I live out my vision. 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. 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” Lilly wrote.
Lilly’s career plans
In the video, Lilly responded to the question of where she sees herself in ten years by revealing she hoped to retire from acting.
“Ten years from now, where would I like to be? I am terrified to admit this to the rest of the acting world, but ideally, 10 years from now I’d like to be a retired actress,” Lilly stated.
Lilly said her true goal was to start a family.
“I would like to have a family, and I’d like to be writing and potentially, um, you know, maybe influencing people’s lives in more humanitarian way as almost everybody in the world now knows was my intention before I started the show,” Lilly added.
Lilly later told the Hollywood Reporter she was ready to make good on that goal until Peter Jackson approached her about starring in The Hobbit, an opportunity Lilly said she couldn’t pass up and that rekindled her love for acting.
“I made a decision and I decided to go do the film. I had a wonderful time making that movie: One of the highlights in my life was living in New Zealand for that year and being a part of that family,” Lilly explained.
“That helped, opened my eyes to the fact that, OK, this job can be a joy, it’s just a matter of how you approach it, and what you do with it, how much I put myself out there, and to a certain degree, how much I work,” Lilly concluded.
Lilly and COVID
Lilly did attract controversy during COVID from the Left.
At the start of the pandemic in 2020, she posted to social media a picture of her family going about their regular lives with the hashtag “#businessasusual.”
Lilly also spoke at a rally in opposition to vaccine mandates attended by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Opposition to COVID mandates and restrictions had many wondering if Marvel would end up firing Lilly.
That didn’t happen as she starred in a third Ant-Man movie that premiered in 2022.
And now it looks like Lilly ended her career on her own terms.
