Marvel franchise actor Evangeline Lilly shared that she’s been dealing with the effects of a traumatic brain injury after falling months ago in Hawaii.
In a video posted to Instagram, Lilly told followers that she recently learned from scans that “almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity.” She wrote in the caption that it was “comforting” to know the symptoms she was having were not from perimenopause as she had apparently believed.
The next move is to begin working with doctors to fix the issue, said Lilly, who starred in the ABC drama “Lost” before signing on for the Marvel films.
“My cognitive decline since I smashed my face open has helped me to slow down and helped me to have a more restful finish to my 2025,” Lilly said. “I think this was the calmest, most restful Christmas holiday I have had, maybe since I had children, so 14 years ago.”
Lilly’s injury stemmed from an incident in May when she fainted at the beach and “fell face first into a boulder,” as she described it in a Substack essay at the time. The “Ant-Man and the Wasp” star wrote that she went to the hospital right afterward, where her tests came back normal.
Medical staff at the time were more concerned about the cause of her “blackout” than the injury to her face, according to Lilly’s recounting of the incident.
“I have had ‘absent’ and fainting spells since I was a little girl,” Lilly wrote. “The doctors checked me for epilepsy when I was young and then settled on the idea of hypoglycemia (without doing any testing).”
Hypoglycemia was ruled out later on in her life, Lilly said, adding that there was still no explanation for the fainting spells and that they would remain an “unknown” in life.
She also said that the fall had “forced” her into being still after a hectic period in her life.
“It might seem crazy looking at my face and my busted tooth, but I feel so grateful that I blacked out,” Lilly wrote. “I needed the reset.”
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