For the past 20 years, it has been difficult (if not impossible) to have even a casual relationship with film and television that does not involve an appreciation of Evangeline Lilly. Her starring role as airplane-crash survivor Kate Austin in the hit ABC series Lost ensured that she was a prime-time regular for six years straight, and in its aftermath she has translated that success into a career in film. This month, Lilly returns for the third installment in the Ant-Man series with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Herewith, she shares her key components to the good life. —Ashley Baker
Airline: One whose flight attendants treat you like an adult.
Airport: Open-air with five gates.
App: The one that doesn’t even try to track, monitor, or surveil.
Bedtime: 8:30 p.m.
Bike: An upright, avocado-green cruiser with a brown leather seat and handlebars. In other words, mine.
Birthday: My 40th—a gathering of my best girlfriends at a beautiful boutique hotel in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas.
Boyfriend/girlfriend: Mine.
Breakfast, weekday: A classic Japanese-hotel breakfast.
Breakfast, weekend: Sourdough toast with brie, bacon, and black tea with honey.
Car: A restored old Bronco or old Land Rover.
Child: The sleeping kind.
Cocktail: An old-fashioned or anything botanical with gin.
Date: Live theater, a long walk, and then some good nibbles and drinks by a roaring fire.
Diet: Everything in moderation.
Dinner, weekday: Soup or stew. (I don’t generally like dinner.)
Dinner, weekend: Clams, sourdough toast, and white wine.
Disguise: Eye contact.
Dress: The one with pockets that looks stunning and feels like pajamas.
Drive: In nature.
Enemy: The kind one.
Escape:
A three-star tree house or five-star tent far away from civilization.
Excuse: “I made a mistake.”
Family: The gracious one.
Friend: The one who seeks me out.
Good-bye: When you only have to say it once, but you don’t throw that once away. You really mean it.
Hotel: Impeccable, but with comfortable service; artful, thoughtful décor; in a restored or maintained old building; few rooms; immaculate views; passionate, private owners.
Indulgence: The first one after a long period of discipline.
Insult: The one said with a smile.
Lunch, weekday: Sushi.
Lunch, weekend: Loaded sandwiches on amazing bread with chips, eaten in the great outdoors.
Match: The one that lights on the first strike.
Movie: Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain.
Name: Evangeline Lilly—i.e., my grandma.
Neighbors: Mine.
Nonfiction book: The Presence Process, by Michael Brown; Falling Upward, by Father Richard Rohr; the Tao Te Ching—too many to choose.
Novel: A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz.
Pet: The herd dog.
Piece of advice: “Follow your dharma.”
Podcast: Poetry Unbound.
President: One with integrity, ethics, and backbone.
Second spouse: Mine.
SingerS: Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne, Patrick Watson …
Spouse: Mine.
Television series: Sex Education.
Theme song to your life: “If I Fall,” by Aqualung.
Time of day: From three a.m. to six a.m.
Toast: “To this moment, right now.”
Vacation: A quiet retreat with good books; blank pages; a good pen; simple, natural food; soft breezes; and sunshine.
View: Trees.
Wake-up time: 3:30 a.m.
Evangeline’s Essentials
