Evangeline Lilly

Always searching for new experiences, Evangeline Lilly has way more going on than just acting. Here, what keeps her driven, curious, and deeply satisfied.

- Didi Gluck

When Evangeline Lilly was 20 years old and juggling two jobs to make ends meet, she totaled her car. With no money to replace it and no way to get to work, she entered a bikini contest; first prize was a one-year lease on a pickup truck. The contest was in just two weeks. She had never modeled and considered herself a serious young woman (she studied political science and international relations at the University of British Columbia) and had no clue what was in store. “But I figured that if I was going to do this, I had better win,” she says. So she hit the gym “like a maniac,” self tanned her alabaster skin into a deep golden tone, subsisted on protein shakes and egg whites—and triumphed. Though she returned to her studies, jobs, and healthy (meaning more sane) eating and exercise habits, to this day she’s not averse to pushing the limits of her body and mind.

“If I had gone on like that for another two years, just imagine how I might have transformed,” Evangeline says. “I could have turned into Spider-Man.” Almost. Currently starring as the Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp, she has again whittled herself into superhero shape with a self-designed regimen that includes sprint workouts and sensible eating. But she wants you to know one thing: “I’m wearing a corset! People don’t look like that.”