Evangeline Lilly explains how a talent scout tried to recruit her… on her way to do 'Ant-Man and the Wasp' press
In a tweet last week, Evangeline Lilly casually revealed that she had just been approached by a modeling and acting scout, which drew appropriately amusing responses from some of the actress’s co-stars over the years. Clearly the talent recruiter never watched Lost, the once insanely popular TV show that made Lilly a star some 14 years. Or the Hobbit trilogy (we know, they weren’t as good as the Lord of the Rings movies, but come on). Or Ant-Man, Lilly’s 2015 debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In fact, Lilly was en route to do press for the new sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, in which she shares equal billing with Paul Rudd in a major moment for the MCU, when the encounter occurred.
It was on this press tour — at the film’s Los Angeles press day, specifically, that we asked Lilly for the full story (watch above).
“I was walking onto the plane and this talent scout was like, ‘Oh my God, for a minute there I thought you were Julia Roberts. Does anyone ever tell you you look like Julia Roberts? You could be a model. You could be an actress,” recounted Lilly. “I’m like, ‘Oh, well, that’s very nice of you.’ And she’s like, ‘No, that’s what I do. I’m a scout. I manage talent. And I think you have potential. I’m telling you, you could have a career if you wanted a career [in entertainment].”
Lilly never let on that she did already, in fact, have a very successful career in film and television (the Canadian-born actress is the author of a delightfully dark children’s book called The Squickerwonkers to boot). “I had to delicately turn her down and tell her I wasn’t interested in the industry.”
The talent scout, meanwhile, may never know that she had tried to recruit a Marvel superhero. Lilly, in her mind, could be the one who got away. “If only I could have signed that girl, I could have made something out of her. Instead she’s just gonna wallow away in her tiny life,” Lilly laughed. “[She’s] never gonna know she could’ve been the first title female character in the MCU.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp opens July 6.
Watch Paul Rudd prove he’s not as nice as you think he is:
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