Model Citizen
Lost's Evangeline Lilly really found herself for the first time in
Vancouver, amid casual cafés, swank hotels, and … cigar
smoke.
• Photograph by Anthony Mandler
On the
ABC megahit
Lost, she plays Kate, a beautiful, fearless
fugitive who falls prey to all manner of misadventure. But
Evangeline Lilly's real-life escapades are almost as wild as
anything her television character experiences. Born in a tiny town
called Fort Saskatchewan, in
Alberta,
Canada (where her father was
a home economics teacher and her mother worked as a beauty
consultant), she has always been drawn to the great outdoors. "The
winter lasts pretty long there, six to seven months," she says of
her hometown. "So I was the kid who was trekking to school in a
full snowsuit and a ski mask, lifting my legs above my thighs to
try to get over the snow." ¶ Lilly was walking on the street in
less hazardous conditions when she was discovered by a talent
agent. At first, acting was not her thing - and modeling certainly
wasn't. She was headed to the University of
British Columbia in
Vancouver to study international relations. But she kept the
agent's card, just in case, because, she says, "You just never know
when having a contact out in the city would be a good thing." Sure
enough, needing tuition money and tired of working "full-time jobs
while going to school full-time and having that compromise [her]
education," she pulled out the card, called the agent, and was soon
doing commercials, which eventually led to her starring role on
Lost. ¶ But we're getting ahead of our story. Here's a trip into
Evangeline Lilly's early life in
Vancouver, as well as some of what
she's learned along the way.
I understand you are quite the
outdoorswoman, on and off the set of Lost, which makes
Vancouver a perfect place for you. Give us a sense of the
layout of the city. Vancouver is actually a city very
much like
Honolulu, ironically, in that it is surrounded by
mountains and ocean. It is very isolated. It is metropolitan
in its center and core, but, primarily, most people who live
in Vancouver are nature lovers and very outdoorsy. A lot of
people there will snowboard and ski and mountain climb and
run and cycle. When you come into the city, for the most
part, it does not feel like a city. It doesn't feel like
Manhattan until you get right into the downtown core, which
is, actually, very much like Manhattan. Downtown's, like, a
tiny little island, and it's surrounded by greater Vancouver.
It's a grid; it's a perfect grid. Once you are in the
downtown core, everything maps out relatively easily. But
greater Vancouver sprawls out over miles and miles and
miles.
Where do you like to stay when you go back?
Probably my very favorite hotel in Vancouver is the Opus Hotel in
Yaletown.
Yaletown is sort of the young, posh area of Vancouver,
and the Opus Hotel is a very swanky, very trendy hotel that,
actually, is similar to the W chain of hotels, always very modern
and minimalist in its interior design. The service is impeccable.
It doesn't have the greatest view. A lot of the hotels in Vancouver
are right on the water and have incredible views. This one is kind
of stuck in the middle of the city, but it's a really cool hotel.
When I was working for the
Ford Talent Agency, doing commercials,
there was an audition for models to work for Abercrombie &
Fitch. I had this long, drawn-out conversation with my agent,
during which they said they thought I should go. I said I was not a
model, I was an actress, and I was not tall enough to be a model,
and I was not skinny enough to be a model, and I should not go.
They said, "No, you should go, because Abercrombie & Fitch goes
for a more athletic, normal-looking model. They don't always go for
the six-foot rakes." They convinced me, and I went and did it, and
it was one of the most mortifying things I've ever done. I'm not a
model. I'm very uncomfortable in front of a camera, and having
people just scope me out to see if I look good enough was a very
uncomfortable thing for me. But it was the first time I had ever
been to the Opus Hotel, and I remember thinking at the time, If I
ever have enough money to stay at a nice hotel in Vancouver, I
would like to stay here. Years later, when I was working for Lost,
I had to go back to Vancouver to do, ironically, a photo shoot. I
requested that I get to stay in the Opus Hotel, and they put me up
there, in this beautiful, monstrous suite. It was sort of a nice
callback to my past life, when I could only dream about affording a
hotel like that.
Where do you like to go for breakfast when you're
out for the day in Vancouver? For breakfast, there is a tiny
little café that is tucked away in the Kitsilano district, which is
a very young and trendy part of Vancouver and where a lot of
students rent when they are going to university; that's the area
that I lived in. The café is called the Naam Restaurant, as in
Vietnam, and it is all-organic, all-natural food. It's really quiet
and sort of almost feels like a seedy environment, because it is so
tucked away and so dark and moody at night. In the morning, it
really feels like you could be tucked away in a café somewhere in
another town from another life. I really love that little café for
breakfast.
What are some of Vancouver's not-to-miss
attractions? The Vancouver Art Gallery was a place I loved
to go. It's really beautiful. I was back up in Vancouver over the
Valentine's Day weekend this year, and I went back there again.
They were showing one of my very favorite Canadian artists, Emily
Carr. She was one of the founders of Canadian art, and she was very
instrumental in moving art from the old school - imperial images
that were all very realistically drawn and landscapes and families
- to a slightly more modern and abstract vision of the world that
incorporates truths that we don't always see. She was very affected
by the Native Americans she lived with in the wilds of Canada. The
outside of the museum is relatively hidden. When you are walking
through the city, you can easily not realize that you just walked
past a museum. Inside, it is very warm and yet stark and
minimalist. It is very organized and very well respected. I think
Canada is particularly fond of encouraging culture and art across
the board. We have a multicultural national day, where in every
city, every culture that lives there will come out and celebrate,
whether that be Chinese or Indian or Native American or whatever
that happens to be. The museum is a taste of that as well. You do
see a lot of different things from different cultures.
Where would you go outdoors? Everyone
who goes to Vancouver comes back raving about Stanley Park.
It's one of the biggest parks in North America that's in the
middle of a city. It's full of big, beautiful old evergreen
trees, and it's just great for a long walk or run or cycle or
Rollerblade or whatever you want to do on a pathway that
follows the coast. It goes the depth of the forest and is
really, really beautiful. If you are in
Stanley Park, then
you are really close to the Vancouver Aquarium. If you've got
family, the aquarium is really a good one to visit. I think,
for a lot of people my age and above, Whistler Blackcomb Ski
Resort has become one of the biggest attractions near
Vancouver and will probably only become more and more known
after 2010, since Vancouver is hosting the 2010 Olympics.
Whistler is one of these things that cause everyone who knows
that I'm from Vancouver to be like, "How is it possible that
you lived in Vancouver but have never been to Whistler?" It
is one of the best attractions in British Columbia. I also
enjoy taking trips to the islands. I'm so much more of a
nature girl than a city girl. The islands are pretty amazing.
Which islands are your favorite? I like
Victoria, which is located on
Vancouver Island. Another town I like
to go to on Vancouver Island is Tofino, where there is great surf.
Tofino is very much like
Hawaii. It is sort of a surf town, where
everyone bums around in surf shorts and bikinis, and the culture is
based around fishing and on sitting on the beach. The Pender
Islands are other tiny islands that are off the coast. They are
like many of the islands out there - Bowen Island, Salt Spring
Island. There is a whole slew of tiny islands where you can get
away from it all. You can completely disappear and stay in a cabin
for two or three weeks, or for a month, and never see traffic,
never see a high-rise, never see a subdivision. It's all just trees
and water and cabins.
Okay, lunch. Where would you send us?
Calhoun's Bakery Café and Catering, in the heart of Kitsilano. When
you go there, you will see study groups, you will see dates, you
will see businesspeople with laptops open. It's this huge space
where there are tons and tons of tables. You can sit there for
hours, having only one cup of coffee, and nobody is going to kick
you out. So it's a really great place to be if you want to be
somewhere in the day and have work to get done or studying to do or
anything like that. I hung out there so much.
Being a waitress helped you make ends meet. Where
did you work? I used to work at a chain of restaurants
called Earls. I think I worked at three or four different Earls as
a waitress. On the
west coast of Canada, it's a huge chain that is
very trendy, and people love to go there. It's very young and very
hip and relatively inexpensive for what you get. They always have
Margarita Mondays and Martini Tuesdays and things like that. You
can find them pretty much in any sector of the city.
I understand you're pretty good at climbing
trees. I love climbing trees. I actually did it in the
Philippines, because in Vancouver, and pretty much anywhere in
Canada, there are not a lot of great climbing trees. Mostly
evergreen trees - very uncomfortable to climb. When I was in the
Philippines, I was suddenly surrounded by these trees that were
extraordinarily climbable. I got really into tree climbing at that
point. Now that I'm living in Hawaii, climbing trees couldn't be
more easy if I were a monkey.
Where are your favorite places to shop? You
know, I've never been a shopper. Before I had this job, I never had
money. So I usually buy a new article of clothing once every three
or four years. Everyone says if you want to go shopping, go to
Robson Street. But I think that for more interesting shopping in
Vancouver, there's a street called Granville, and Granville Street,
once you pass out of the downtown core and head out toward the
airport, crosses over West Broadway. At the intersection of
Granville and West Broadway, up from that road, there is
more-eclectic shopping, shops that are more local.
What are some other eclectic places?
Gastown is one of the oldest areas of Vancouver. It is just west of
Chinatown. There's a steam-powered clock down by the water, and
there are artists who will sit on the street and paint, and you can
buy their artwork. There are little art shops, souvenir shops, and
that kind of thing. It's right near Canada Place. I would also go
to Commercial Drive. You are going to notice a theme here that I
have; my tastes are becoming very obvious and apparent, but there
are lots of great, sort of hippie hideaways. Little organic coffee
shops and organic Indonesian restaurants and things like that. I
think Commercial Street has so much character, and, for me, if I
were to go and hang out somewhere now, I could totally still hang
out on Commercial Street and assume that I wouldn't get bothered
too much, because the people there are all really low-key and very
cool. There was a restaurant, just about two blocks down from First
Street, on Commercial Drive, and I don't know if it was Indonesian
or African or what it was, but I used to go there for this one dish
they served, which was basically mashed-up spinach with those
Indian salty crackers, the flat type that they make. It was one of
my favorite meals.
I know you had to watch what you spent when you
were living in Vancouver. But where would you head for dinner
now? There is this really amazing, amazing restaurant in the
West End that overlooks English Bay and is right on the water. It
is slightly more pricey, and all its food is from one of the
neighboring Gulf islands. Every single thing they serve in that
restaurant, the Raincity Grill, is wonderful. The food is
impeccable, and the service is really great. You want to be there
at either sunup or sundown. I don't think they are open at sunup.
Dusk is the time to go there. It is so stunning. The sun sets over
the water, right in front of the restaurant. I have been to the
Creek Restaurant [now the Dockside Restaurant]. It's probably one
of the most high-end restaurants I've been to in Vancouver. I went
there, actually, before Lost, on a sort of special night one time
with a guy. The Creek was on
Granville Island, and the food was
pretty incredible. The restaurant used to have a really great cigar
bar, if you happened to be a cigar smoker. It had Cohibas and any
other sort of international cigar that you could dream up for sale.
There was this very old-fashioned gentleman's lounge, where you
could go in and drink whiskey and smoke cigars. That's one of the
beauties of Canada. Cuban cigars are totally legal there. I was a
cigar smoker for eight years, believe it or not. And my favorite
cigar always was a Cohiba.
Is there any place where the setting is as good as
the food - and the smoke? The Sandbar on Granville Island is
amazing. It is such a beautiful restaurant, and it is very West
Coast. They serve amazing seafood there, salmon and calamari and
different things that they catch locally. The view is of the bay in
Vancouver, so you can overlook the city as well as the ocean.
Granville Island is also the place to go if you want to see an
outdoor theater play or an indoor theater play, or if you want to
go and see live music, or if you want to go and check out galleries
or check out the art scene in Vancouver.
Do you have any good stories from your days as a
waitress at Earls? One time,
Clint Eastwood came in, and I
served him at the restaurant, which was kind of cool. Goldie Hawn
and
Kurt Russell came into that same restaurant when I was working
there. I wasn't specifically waiting on Clint Eastwood, but I was a
bartender for a few years as well. He had just had a house burn
down that his former girlfriend and their daughter were leasing in
Vancouver, and that night, they took their daughter there for
dinner. You would assume it was because they didn't have anywhere
else to go for dinner. They didn't have a home to be in, so they
came to our restaurant. I felt that, as an ironic, cheer-you-up
joke, I would do a fire trick for him. I did this trick with black
Sambuca where I pour a shot of black Sambuca into my mouth, tip my
head back, open my mouth, set the Sambuca on fire, and then pour
cinnamon over the fire - it basically looks like I'm breathing
flames like a dragon. That was my attempt to cheer him up and make
their experience of having their house burn down a little bit less
awful. I'm sure it didn't help at all. They were probably like, "Oh
my goodness, leave us alone." I was very impressed with him. He was
very kind and very sweet and said that he liked it and thanked me
for doing it. He was very cordial; he was a nice man. He seemed
very natural and down-to-earth.
She Said …
Where Evangeline Lilly loses herself in
Vancouver
Lodging
Opus Hotel, very expensive, (604) 642-6787,
www.opushotel.com
Dining
The Naam Restaurant, vegetarian,
inexpensive, (604) 738-7151, www.thenaam.com
Calhoun's Bakery Café and Catering, casual, inexpensive, (604)
737-7062, www.calhouns.bc.ca
Dockside Restaurant, casual, moderate to
expensive, (604) 685-7070, www.docksidebrewing.com
Earls, casual, inexpensive, (604) 734-5995,
www.earls.ca
Raincity Grill, eclectic, moderate to
expensive, (604) 685-7337, www.raincitygrill.com
The Sandbar, seafood/fusion, moderate to
expensive, (604) 669-9030, www.mysandbar.com
Attractions
Stanley Park, (604) 257-8400,
www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/Parks/parks/stanley
Vancouver Art Gallery, (604) 662-4719,
www.vanartgallery.bc.ca
Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre,
(604) 659-3474, www.vanaqua.org
Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort, (604)
904-8134, www.whistlerblackcomb.com
Explore
Commercial Drive, www.thedrive.ca
Gastown, www.seegastown.com
Granville Island,
www.granvilleisland.com
Granville Street,
www.granvillestreet.com
Robson Street, www.robsonstreet.ca
Tofino, British Columbia,
tofino.travel.bc.ca
Vancouver Island,
www.vancouverisland.com
Victoria, British Columbia,
www.tourismvictoria.com
We Said …
Where we lose ourselves in Vancouver
Lodging
Hotel LeSoleil, moderate, (604) 632-3000,
www.hotellesoleil.com. Everyone should enjoy this posh, pampering
hotel, but it offers a little something extra for the ladies: the
Elle Suite, which plies female business travelers with amenities
like bath salts for the soaker tubs, low-calorie minibar snacks,
and beefed-up security.
The Sylvia Hotel, inexpensive, (604)
681-9321, www.sylviahotel.com. The rooms may be somewhat sparse,
but the building is a historic one, dating back to 1912. More
important, it straddles beautiful English Bay and is surrounded by
Stanley Park, so the location is ideal. Tip: Just before dusk, head
to the bar, order a blueberry martini, and watch the sun go down
over the bay.
Dining
Dundarave Fish Market, moderate, (604)
922-1155, www.dundaravefishmarket.com. You're on the sea, so why
not enjoy its bounty? Two of our favorites at this cozy café are
the crab cakes and the fish and chips; you can also select your
seafood straight from the display case and have the chefs prepare
it to your liking.
The Red Onion, inexpensive, (604) 263-0833.
We love a good diner, and so, apparently, do a lot of
Vancouverites, who flock here for some of the best burgers and hot
dogs in town. And did we mention the yummy fries with white dill
sauce (an extra buck or two but worth every penny)?
Sights
BC Place Stadium, (604) 669-2300, www.bcplacestadium.com. The home of the Canadian
Football League’s B.C. Lions and the intended site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010
Olympics. In January, a vicious winter storm ripped a gaping hole in the Teflon dome, but now, fully restored, the stadium is once again ready for some football (the season runs July through November) as well as for concerts and other major events held there throughout the year.
Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, (604) 822-5087, www.moa.ubc.ca. Sometimes you can judge a museum by its shop, and the ceramics, glassware, and other goodies at the MOA’s gift store do indeed hint at the endless wonders that make up one of the largest collections anywhere of Pacific Northwest art and archaeology. Particularly noteworthy is the assortment of towering totem poles, not to mention the museum’s own architecture and awesome views.