LOST Magazine - Special Edition

LOST Magazine

An excerpt with Evangeline Lilly (Kate Austen) as featured in The Official Lost Magazine Souvenir Edition.

It's been an amazing six year journey. Does it feel like it all flew by?

Evangeline Lilly: I feel like it's been a long time. I don't know if that's just because I was on such a big journey personally, and I've grown so much in that time. Or, that I feel that way because of my age – I was 24 when I started this show and I'll be 31 this summer. I think there is a lot of 'settling in' that happens in a person's life in those years – into who you are, what you want, and what life is going to look like for you. For me, there's none of that, 'It feels like it was just yesterday!' For me it feels like a million years since we first started.

How did you prepare to 'let go' yourself?

Well, the show coming to an end is something that I celebrate and not because it wasn't beautiful. I spent the last season mourning the loss of it and savoring every second of it. I've literally been trying to focus on how much I value every little aspect of the show. I am very sappy and I made sure I went to every single person and place that meant something to me and I had my goodbyes.

From 'letting go' to The End... were you satisfied with Kate's progression and her overall place in the story this final season?

I was really pleased with Kate's story this season. But around season three or four she became the glue that tied a lot of people together. She wasn't driving towards any one specific end goal, but she was able to unite people, because all she ever seemed to be able to see was the moment directly in front of her. If Kate saw someone hurting in front of her, she would beat the heck out of whoever hurt them, and help make it right.

By season six, she had become so invested, so utterly and completely focused on being Aaron's mother. She even dropped the guise of being the emotional glue and became a standard by which to gauge normalcy. While everyone else was running around like crazy people, Kate was the only person wandering around with a clear and concise perspective on life. It was very sobering when everything got cerebral and 'out there' as suddenly Kate would simply ask something like, "Well, why are our names written on a wall?"

I really enjoyed that and not having to play any emotional high drama for the last season. I believe when a human being has reached a place of wisdom or spiritual maturity, the emotional ups and downs fall away and you come to a place of emotional steadiness. Even if you cry your eyes out, you are able to stop, turn around, and keep going. For me it was a beautiful season where I felt like what I got to portray with Kate was that she'd learned the lessons she needed to learn, and she was now living in the freedom of having escaped the cycle she was in.

You really do have a myriad of paths to choose from now. How does that feel?

It's amazing. And it's a gift that not everybody can say that they get, especially at my age.

I think some people may feel that way at retirement, which is beautiful and amazing and they should congratulate themselves for having earned that.

So I feel like for me there is a real sense that I have to honor what I have been given, because it is so rare and incredible. I don't want to be flippant about getting on with life. I want to make conscious decisions now.

The world is my oyster right now – I can go anywhere, do anything and try whatever I want to try – so I have to make some good decisions because this is a dream come true.

Lost Magazine Souvenir Edition is on newsstands now. Click here to check out what's inside.