KEY POINTS:
Why does everyone keep saying "only 48 more episodes" as though it's no big deal?
There was a time, midway through season three, where I thought, what if this goes on, 10, 12, 15 seasons? Can I do that? I don't know. That would be really, really
stifling.
And then this announcement came up and it was like, "aaah".
Forty-eight I can do.
Of course there's always the risk that I'll be killed off the show. That's always looming over my head.
Surely it's good to have security in this business?
Yeah, but I was starting to get what I like to call "character fever". God help you if you have to play her one more moment.
Then the writers rescued me from that with the final scene of season three. It inspired me, it gave me so much more motivation, more new life, more thoughts about her, where she's going to go.
The idea of playing a world after the island is exactly the fresh breeze that I needed to fill the sails and keep going.
What else can you tell us about season four?
Nothing, totally nothing. I can't control who she'll speak to, where she's going, what she'll do, but I can control how she'll behave in those scenarios.
You seem like a free spirit. It can't have been easy signing those long-term contracts.
I think it's a danger for someone who likes change. You can miss out on a lot of things in life because you're too busy moving on to the next thing. This show has forced me to stay still. It's forced me to stay in the same place.
It's forced me to be with the same people and do the same job for three years, and will do for another three years.
That has been a huge gift because I don't do that on my own. On my own I'm up and gone. Every six weeks.
How will you feel being being back on set without Charlie? [played by her boyfriend, Dominic Monaghan, killed off at the end of the last series].
It's always difficult when a cast member goes.
For a long time it was like the shifting of the continents where you're trying to mesh together again to fill that gap. So it's awkward. It doesn't happen naturally.
We've been a constant for three years. To pull out another piece of the puzzle, it's even more giant. I think the beginning of season four will be hard.
It will be awkward and sad but we'll find our way again and find our groove and the show will go on.
Your first film, Afterwards [out later this year] is about mortality. So is Lost in a way.
That will hopefully be a theme throughout my career.
I seek stories that have a message, that challenge people, I don't really have any interest in just entertaining people. I want to tell stories that will affect people's lives.
That's a bit scary considering your house burnt down [in 2006].
When I got the phone call saying, your house is ash, in that moment, I'd never felt more free. It was really beautiful.
For some reason, immediately I felt elated. I just think fire is so pure and clean and it leaves only elements, only the raw base of the earth. There's something beautiful in that fire.
You realise you're sending a dangerous message here.
Arson! All over the country! No really, it's a beautiful experience. You should try it.
Lowdown
Who: Evangeline Lily aka Kate
What: Lost
When and where: Season starts Wednesday, TV2, 8:30 pm.
