Magazines have been pulling these kinds of tricks for ages, but Evangeline Lilly isn't having it.
Evangeline Lilly’s Women’s Health magazine cover has caused a bit of a stir, as The Hobbit actress publicly objected against the way she is portrayed. Essentially, Women’s Health did the thing that magazines have been doing since time immemorial and blatantly objectified Lilly’s body. It can’t get more overt than an arrow, pointing to the actress’ behind with the words “Best Butt Ever” printed over it.
Lilly has a diverse and long-standing acting career, but "Women's Health" reduced her to the "best butt ever."
Lilly, who plays Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (out in the US today) wasn’t too happy about it either. When she stopped by Conan to promote the movie, the host asked her directly about the not-so-subtle cover.
“They go, ‘Best Butt Ever!’ and they have an arrow going to your butt, and I’m just curious," he said, according to the Huffington Post. "Is that something they tell you before you do the shoot? Did they tell you they were going to do that?”
The actress made her feelings clear in an interview with Conan O'Brien.
Lilly made her feelings on the subject clear, saying: "No! Do you think I would’ve done the shoot if they said, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re gonna say, ‘Best Butt Ever!’ and put an arrow to your behind.’ No! You know, every woman’s after a kind of classy image.”
There was also some chit-chat in Elvish during the interview, check it out below.
To put this in context, it isn’t the first time that Women’s Health have pulled the arrow-to-the-butt stunt. They added a similar arrow and caption to their cover with Elsa Pataky back in May, although the actress didn’t publicly object at the time.
Lilly isn't holding a grudge over it though.
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