Actress Evangeline Lilly gave up semi-retirement to work on The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug after promising herself she was done with set times, red carpets and Hollywood.

The Lost star reveals she was more than happy as a mum and housewife to her boyfriend, production assistant Norman Kali, when director Peter Jackson tracked her down and asked her to be a part of his Lord of the Rings prequel.

She tells Wenn, "I had retired into what I thought would be a life of quiet motherhood and writing and didn't really plan on taking any more acting gigs. It had been at least five years since I had taken a meeting or engaged in a new project. I was sort of off the grid.

"I was so far off the grid that when Pete and Phil (Phillipa Boyens) were trying to find me to get a hold of me about this role, they couldn't reach me and somebody on their production team just coincidentally used to work with my partner. So he got a text message one day saying, 'Peter Jackson is trying to reach Evangeline. Do you think she might pick up the phone please?'

"They did eventually get a hold of me and because The Hobbit was my favourite book as a little girl and the elves were my favourite characters in the book, it was a dream to play one. I picked up the phone very quickly. Then they said, 'Your character is not in the book,' and I took great pause as a great fan of Tolkien, who inspired me to write. I kind of gulped and went, 'What?!'

"It didn't take them long to convince me that it was the right thing to do. I agreed to the job under one condition and they agreed to the condition, which was in place for two years. The condition was, 'I will not be involved in a love triangle' - because, if any of you were fans of Lost, I've had it up to here with love triangles.

"But, sure enough, I come back for reshoots in 2012 and they go, 'We've made a few adjustments to the love story'."