Evangeline Lilly wasn't planning to become a Hollywood actress when she landed her breakthrough role on hit TV series Lost - she was conducting a "psychological experiment" to boost her self-confidence.

Lilly recently left fans stunned after revealing she may quit acting once the desert island drama ends this month because she's "not passionate" about her career.

And she owes the breakthrough role as leading survivor Kate Austen to a friend who gave her advice to be more bold - because she had spent "five years being a wallflower" before the audition.

She explains, "This was my first speaking role in film or television. It was a psychological experiment to put myself out in the world, and be bold, and be brave, and try new things, and go where no man had gone before, more than an attempt to become an actress. I was auditioning to exercise muscles of confidence. I had my first audition in January 2004 and in March 2004 I was in Hawaii filming the pilot of Lost."

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2010/05/12/evangeline_lillys_lost_role_was_a_psyc

I think Lilly proved she can act in the series. There were several episodes that really showcased her dramatic, and occasionally comedic, abilities.

It's a shame that the show kind of "lost" Kate's character somewhere in Season 3. We kind of moved away from the mysterious, somewhat morally ambiguous bad ass with a vulnerable side to a woman whose function basically seemed to vacillate between loving Jack and Sawyer, and then to raise another woman's baby.

None of this was the fault of Lilly.