How 'The Hobbit' changed Evangeline Lilly's mind about acting

One of the more controversial decisions by the makers of "The Hobbit" was the addition of elf warrior Tauriel, a new character not present in J.R.R. Tolkien's story. And perhaps nobody was more suspicious of changes than Evangeline Lilly, the "Lost" alumna who portrayed the character in Parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy, "The Desolation of Smaug" and "The Battle of the Five Armies," which opened this week.

"I was adamant that I wouldn't see ['The Lord of the Rings'] films because there was no way that anybody was going to be able to re-create what I had imagined in my mind on the screen," the self-described Tolkien purist told Hero Complex last year.

But the efforts of screenwriters Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens to craft a character whose presence "didn't feel jarring" and "felt like she belonged" in Middle-earth, as Boyens said, seem to have been rewarded as "Hobbit" fans have embraced the bow-and-arrow-wielding Tauriel.

In "The Battle of the Five Armies," Tauriel and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) continue their efforts to assist the dwarfs and protect Middle-earth from invading orcs.

In an interview excerpted below, Lilly chatted about Tauriel's romance with dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner), filming in New Zealand, and the development of her character, whom Lilly has said is partly inspired by Tinkerbell.

Q: Tauriel seems beloved by young "Hobbit" fans, especially girls.

A: That's so wonderful. We really created the part of Tauriel in the hopes that that's how little ones would feel, especially little girls. And even big girls, but it means a lot when little girls are excited about Tauriel.

A: I give credit for that completely to Peter, Fran and Philippa. I think they handled the creation of this character with kid gloves. As a big fan of Tolkien I was greatly relieved to see how little I was in the film. And usually as an actor, you're really hoping you'll be in the movie as much as possible, and you know, you want to see your character thrive. I just felt like it was enough time to establish a believable, convincing, relatable and emotional character without letting her, or any of the other elves for that matter, take center stage away from Bilbo and the dwarfs and their story.

Q: How much input did you get to have in Tauriel's development as a character?

A: Frankly, a lot. I was so blessed to have been given, I don't want to say carte blanche, but they invited me into their creative hub, and we created Tauriel together. It's kind of changed my mind about acting. I had always found acting to be a frustrating profession, then all of a sudden, these incredible creative geniuses brought me into their foray, and they allowed me to be a part of a beautiful creation, a beautiful character. A new window was opened to acting for me where I had a great sense of professional and creative satisfaction in playing this character, and it really sort of changed my mind about my career.

Q: So what part of yourself did you bring to Tauriel?

A: I'm almost insanely passionate about justice, to a fault. To the point where I have to talk myself off of ledges all the time because I just want to get on soapboxes and run around and yell at people and crusade and protest and change the status quo and fix things and fight for the innocent and fight for the downtrodden. That was where I related the most to this character. I feel like if I was Tauriel in Middle-earth, and my king told me, "Oh, forget about it. They're lambs to the slaughter. Leave them be," I would have definitely balked at that also.

A: Something we didn't really tell the audience, but I knew in my own heart and mind, was that in her back story, Tauriel was orphaned when she was a young, young elf. She's still a young elf — she's only 600 — but at some point in her life, she was orphaned, and her parents were killed at the hands of an orc, or orcs (I'm not sure how many). And that influenced a lot of the decisions that I made for the character at the beginning of the film, and her attitude, her demeanor, her presence, her coldness, the anger that sort of seethed out of her was this need for revenge, this need for justice, this need to make things right in a world that had wronged her. And then as Kili enters her world, he opens up her heart and mind and her soul to the notion of innocence again. So I think it's a beautiful arc for the character, and I was very excited to play it.

Q: What do you think happens to her after the events of "Five Armies"?