Evangeline Lilly Talks About “Tauriel”

In an interview conducted by John Young for “Inside Movies”, Evangeline Lilly was asked a  few questions about her role as Tauriel, a Silvan elf in Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit”. This is an excerpt from the interview:

Speaking of small and little, I’d be remiss not to bring up The Hobbit. You’re playing a new character named Tauriel, who’s a Mirkwood elf, and that would lead me to believe that she is a warrior of some kind. Did you have to learn archery and swordplay?
Yes, she is a warrior. She’s actually the head of the Elven guard. She’s the big shot in the army. So she knows how to wield any weapon, but the primary weapons that she uses are a bow and arrow and two daggers. And she’s lethal and deadly. You definitely wouldn’t want to be caught in a dark alley next to Tauriel.

So then Tauriel must be involved with the dwarves being captured…
I think basically what you’re asking is if she’s in the film very much. She’s not in the first film very much. She comes into the first film near the end, and has a very small part to play. Her role in the second film is much more involved. Although, I have to say, when I first read the scripts and took the job, she had a lot less going on in the second film. I think the role is becoming a bit more demanding than I had expected it to be. There’s a lot more for me to do now, which is a lot of fun, but it’s a little more pressure.

Does she play a large part in the Battle of Five Armies?
Oh, I don’t know. We haven’t shot that yet. I still have to go back for five more months of filming.

How many months have you been there already?
On and off for the past six months. It’s a two-year shoot in total for both films, and my contract had me blocked off for about a year. I come in and out of New Zealand throughout that year.

How has the experience of shooting in New Zealand compared to the multiple years you spent in Hawaii on Lost?
In some ways, it feels really familiar. I’m from Canada, and New Zealand feels like you took all the best bits of Canada and squished them onto a tiny island like Hawaii. I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the South Island. I seem to be landing really great locations on a lot of my work. I hope that continues, knock on wood.

Source

Evangeline Lilly Speaks About Her Part in The Hobbit Films

http://widget.accesshollywood.com/singleclip/singleclip_v1.swf?CXNID=1000004.10035NXC&WID=482a0d55893fbe3f&clipID=1359582

Evangeline Lilly

Nicole Evangeline Lilly (born August 3, 1979) is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost.

Before starring on Lost (2004), Lilly worked a variety of other jobs. She apparently worked as a flight attendant, waitress, milked cattle, and completed oil changes on big rigs. To fund her university education, she modeled although she never considered herself a model. She appeared on G4’s Judgment Day and in an uncredited role in the 2003 film Freddy vs. Jason as a high-school girl leaning against a locker, and some appearances in a few episodes of Smallville as an extra. She had a guest appearance on the ABC supernatural horror series Kingdom Hospital (2004). She also appeared on a Live Links chat line commercial. Lilly’s first speaking role, however, was on Lost. She studied acting at The Yaletown Actors Lab with writer, director David Palffy and was first discovered by agent Jeff Palffy, formerly of Ford Models, now with PMG Management in Vancouver, who was instrumental in her first break on Lost.

When Lilly was cast as Kate in Lost, her main concern was acquiring a work visa to enter the United States. With production literally days away and no news about the visa, casting directors were forced to grudgingly begin re-casting the role of Kate. After nearly 20 auditions, Lilly’s work visa was approved/cleared but she arrived on set a day late.

Her salary in 2004 for Lost was $80,000 per episode. On the heels of her role in Lost, she was voted one of the Breakout Stars of 2004 by Entertainment Weekly and on December 14, 2006, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Lead Actress-Drama. Action figures of Lilly’s Lost character were released during the holiday season of 2006. On May 11, 2010, Lilly announced on The View that she places writing and being a mother as top priorities, but she likes acting as a day job and she will continue acting when possible.

Lilly is planning to write children’s books called The Squickerwonkers.

On June 19th 2011, it was announced that Lilly would play the role of the Elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s upcoming two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”, due for release in December 2012 and 2013 and currently in production in New Zealand.

Filmography

Peter J on Facebook: announces casting for “Tauriel” and the Goblin King

More news via Peter J. on casting. It appears that Itaril is a no-go, but now we have a Tauriel, which means ‘daughter of Mirkwood’, in our cast. The character is being played by Evangeline Lilly, who assayed the character of Kate Austen in the phenomenal series, Lost.

Peter J has also stated that Barry Humphries will be playing the character of the Great Goblin “in much the way Andy Serkis created Gollum”. So that would definitely be something look forward to.

Read more on his facebook page here.