As a Hollywood A-list actress, Evangeline Lilly has portrayed women dealing with all manner of daunting challenges, from surviving a plane crash in “Lost” to helping save the universe as the Wasp in Marvel’s “Avengers” series.
Now, she’s facing a daunting challenge in real life, with no special effects team or stunt double to save her from struggle and pain.
“Verdict’s in,” she announced recently on social media. “I do have brain damage from my tbi.”
The “tbi” she referenced stands for “traumatic brain injury,” which she suffered in May when she fainted and fell face-first into a boulder while visiting a beach in Hawaii.
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Lilly said she has suffered unexplained episodes of passing out since she was a child.
“The results came back from the scans, and almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity,” she confirmed.
“My job now is to get to the bottom of that with doctors, and then embark on the hard work of fixing it,” Lilly added.
In the Jan. 2 video, she said medical confirmation of the brain damage was something of a relief.
“[It’s] comforting to know my cognitive decline isn’t just peri-menopause, discomforting to know what an uphill battle it will be to try to reverse the deficiencies,” she wrote in the accompanying post.
The actress said she recorded the video to answer questions people had been asking about her recovery.
Even before the accident, Lilly told Variety, she had already distanced herself from acting.
“I have actually been on a hiatus from acting for the past three years already (since finishing work on ‘Quantumania’),” she told the entertainment news outlet.
“This time outside of the business has brought me a grounding sense of fulfillment and joy. I could return tomorrow, two years from now or never, but at the moment I am not actively pursuing any work in the industry and am not under any contractual obligations to anybody. I am devoting my time to my humanitarian work and my writing.”
She closed her social media post on a note of gratitude to her followers.
“Thank you all for always asking, for always caring, and for your continued prayers,” she said.
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