Evangeline Lilly said she weighed whether to post photos of herself at an anti-vaccination rally because she knew it would be controversial, but that Marvel has taken the stance that “it’s not up to us to tell you.” say how you should live your life”.
In an interview with Esquire published on Friday, the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star opened up about her conflicted relationship with Hollywood, including her feelings amid #MeToo that she’s “become a misogyny to become a misogyny.” survive” why she has never “felt lonelier”. Hollywood than I do now” and her life — and career — endeavors beyond the carpets and movie sets.
She also spoke about the controversy surrounding her participation in an anti-vaccination mandate rally in January 2022 and a March 2020 post at the very dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the message, she used the hashtag #businessasusual to describe how she and her family are going about their lives amid a global public health crisis that has since killed 6.8 million people — 64,000 of them in the past 28 days, it said the WHO.
Speaking to the 2022 Post, Lilly told the magazine she was wondering if she should post it “about 600 times,” knowing it could cause backlash. “I know the beast I attack,” she recalled. “I know I’ve got a little pebble and there’s this damn Goliath giant. If I shoot that pebble, the giant will wake up.”
But the Marvel actress reiterated a similar message from her Instagram post, telling Esquire, “I just wanted people out there who were struggling because they were under a lot of pressure to do something they didn’t want to do , knowing they’re not alone , knowing that there are people out there who actually feel like they have a right to say no,” she said.
In her post last year, Lilly said her attendance at the rally — the same event that anti-vaccine Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made headlines by comparing vaccination orders to the Holocaust — was in support of “physical sovereignty” as someone who was “Pro-choice before COVID and I’m still pro-choice today.”
“I believe no one should ever be forced to inject anything into their body against their will, under threat of violent attack, arrest or detention without trial, loss of job, homelessness, starvation, loss of education, alienation from loved ones, ex- Communication from society… under any threat,” she wrote at the time. “That’s not the way. That is not sure. That is not healthy. This isn’t love. I understand that the world is afraid, but I don’t believe that responding to fear with violence will solve our problems.”
But the Marvel actress took a different stance in her March 16, 2020 Instagram post, in which she captioned a photo of tea: “Just dropped my kids off at gym camp. They all wash their hands before going inside. They play and laugh. #as usual.” For that post, the actress offered a lengthy apology almost two weeks later.
“I didn’t expect anyone to pay attention because nobody ever pays attention to what I post,” she said of her reasons for the original post and the apology. “Enough people ended up telling me, ‘Well, there’s a lot of people who’re dying right now, and it might have been very insensitive to what they’re going through,’ and that resonated with me.”
In a separate interview for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, taking place during the press tour for the release of the third Ant-Man film, Lilly further explained the reaction to her posts and how her public political positions were taken by Marvel.
When asked if Marvel President Kevin Feige ever asked for their personal posts to be suppressed, Lilly said — even in cases of “direct conversations with them that I instigated” — the answer was no.
“They always said, ‘It’s none of our business. It’s not for us to tell you how to live your life or what opinions to have,'” she said. “I think it’s really healthy. I think there needs to be a separation between your professional life and your personal life.”
The actress added that amid the controversy over her comments, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed told her not to worry about the rumors surrounding her future with Marvel.
“I even got a really supportive call from Peyton Reed once, where he said, ‘Just so you know, there’s been some rumors about Marvel dropping you or canceling you, and it didn’t come from Marvel, and it did it done. They don’t come from us. So just ignore that,'” she recalled.
Marvel actor Chris Evans previously told that neither Kevin Feige nor Marvel told him to minimize his political speech. “Quite the opposite – when I meet Kevin Feige, the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, ‘Man, I love what you do [on Twitter],'” he explained.
“I don’t see it as trash talk,” Feige told THR. “I see it as very smart, very honorable, very noble, very cap-like. Comment and ask questions. I said to him: ‘You are merging! You and the character merge!’”
At the time, Evans added that when it comes to voicing his political opinions, he doesn’t want to “alienate” half of his audience. “But I would be disappointed in myself if I didn’t speak out,” he added. “Especially out of fear of financial repercussions or career damage — that just feels really gross to me.”
Lilly shared a similar sentiment about why she’s been so open about her vaccination stance. “My authenticity will upset some people and doesn’t always make me friends or endear me,” she said. “But that’s all I have left.”