Evangeline Lilly: 'Hobbit' offer was delivered in delivery room

Canadian actress-author Evangeline Lilly says "The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smug" offer came to her at a point of time when she was retiring from acting and looking forward to motherhood.

"I kind of got drawn into the project. I was laid up in bed, having just had my first child - I mean literally just - and I got a call saying, 'Peter Jackson would like you to play an Elf in his upcoming 'Hobbit' films," she said and added: "And I was like, 'Holy crap!'

"I thought I had retired at that point from acting, and I was moving into a stage of life with motherhood, and attempting a writing career. My focus was totally shifted away from acting," she said.

The 34-year-old, who wrote a book this year - "The Squickerwonkers", her first children's storybook, says "The Hobbit" had been her favourite book as a teenager.

"Peter Jackson's realization of 'The Lord of the Rings' films had been some of my favourite movies ever," said the actress who is also a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, all of the work of Tolkien.

Known for her role as Kate Austen in ABC's "Lost", the actress is also part of "The Hobbit: There and Back Again", the final two films of Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" trilogy.

She describes "The Hobbit" as her dream role. The actress flew to New Zealand with her three-month-old baby to shoot and was nursing in between.

"I had to nurse every three hours," she said here during a promotional interview.

Talking about the timing of the offer, she said: "It was not great timing, but in a way, it was perfect timing because I had mommy brain still, and because my focus was so much on my baby, I was so relaxed about the whole thing.

"Being a part of the franchise could be very nerve-wracking. It's a lot of pressure and it's a big deal, but I was so focused elsewhere that I was very relaxed about the whole thing, and had a great time."

Are you working on anything else?

"Yeah. I wrote a book this year, called 'The Squickerwonkers', and it is sort of the pinnacle of my existence right now because I've wanted to be a writer for a very long time, and I'm finally pursuing that dream. This is my first children's storybook, the beginning of hopefully a series," she said.