She may be an âOtherâ on Americaâs favorite island, but fans still love her. Get to know actress Elizabeth Mitchell as she talks about her career, motherhood, and guilty pleasures.
Actress Elizabeth Mitchell is best known as the enigmatic Juliet Burke on ABCâs drama/thriller LOST, but it is what sheâs found thatâs generating excitement this afternoon.
We just found a lost puppy,â says Mitchell, apologizing for the slight delay in starting the interview. No problem: In my book, rescuing a cuddly pup trumps shop talk any day. She deftly fields questions about career and family, all while following the dog as it explores its new, if temporary, digs. âI love puppies, but they really are like babies,â Mitchell adds. Her 3-year-old son, CJ, isnât so sure about the new arrival, but Mitchell calmly soothes his worries. Seems sheâs got the mom role down, too.
Mitchell, her husband, Christopher Soldevilla, who is a teacher and improvisational actor, and their son are in Hawaii, the familyâs part-time home while she films season five of the Emmy Award-winning show. She joined the tight-knit cast in season three when fans were introduced to her as one of the islandâs âOthers,â making her a potential threat to hunky hero Jack (played by Matthew Fox) and his fellow marooned flight mates.
Followers of the show know that Mitchellâs character is complex, at once cold and cunning and empathetic and vulnerable. â[Juliet] is one of my favorite characters,â Mitchell says, âbecause she does have this tremendous amount of empathy, which I identify with, but sheâs also kind ofâI always like to say sheâs fairly lethal. I love her mystery.â
In real life, there was never any mystery about Mitchellâs career calling. Growing up in Dallas, she always had a passion for acting, performing with the Dallas Theater Center and landing her first big role at age 7 as Alice in Through the Looking Glass (coincidentally, also the title of Lostâs season three finale).
A Texas upbringing and encouragement from her parents infused in Mitchell a confidence and trueness thatâs led to her success on stage and screen. âIn Texas, youâre kind of brought up to be strong and be your own person,â she says. âMy parents absolutely echoed that. They were big on you being an individual and making your way in the world. They also very much had the Texas mentality of âthereâs nothing you canât do.â I enjoyed growing up with that idea.â
On stage, the self-described âhugely awkwardâ adolescent (hard to believe looking at the 5-foot-10-inch blonde beauty now) became a swan. âI had terrible acne, but on stage you couldnât see any of that. I could be the most awkward person youâve ever seen or I could be a lovely person. With makeup on stage, I could be anyone.â