Evangeline Lilly Says A Stunt Man On ‘Lost’ Attempted To Injure Her
Evangeline Lilly got her big break starring on Lost, but during a panel discussion about women in the stunt business this week, she revealed that she flayed the skin off both of her forearms during a stunt that went wrong several years ago on the set of Lost.
“There were open wounds, pus-y and oozing,” she said. “I looked like a mutant. My mom said, ‘You’ll never be able to wear an evening gown again!’”
She later described a “misogynistic” stunt coordinator of punishing her for defying his wish to have a stuntwoman do the stunt, which involved rolling off a thick tree branch high above the ground and hanging on for dear life, though there was no risk of falling because she was safely harnessed to the branch.
As Page Six reports, Lilly said she asked to have moleskin – a light fabric used to prevent abrasions – wrapped around her forearms, but the coordinator said no. “They’ll see it,” he said, though she was sure it wouldn’t show on screen. So she did the stunt bare-armed – over and over and over again. And each time the rough bark ripped off more of her skin. And after each take, New Skin – a liquid-bandage brand – was painfully applied to the wounds, and then the coordinator would send her back up the tree to do it again and again and again, each time more painful than the last.
“I felt it was him saying, ‘I’m going to put you in your place for standing up to me,’” she said. “It was either cow to his power or hurt myself. I was in my 20s then. Now, I would probably back down.”