Evangeline Lilly: Being Cast in 'The Hobbit' 'A Dream Come True'

Evangeline Lilly describes her stint in 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' as 'a dream come true.'

The 34-year-old actress spoke to E! News during the films' premiere at Los Angeles last Monday about her role in Peter Jackson's second installment of the film adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien classic.

She was smiling ear-to-ear as she describes her Middle Earth experience as 'surprising and overwhelming and exciting.'

'I was a massive Tolkien fan,' reveals Lilly further, adding, 'The Hobbit was... my favorite book as a little girl and the Silvan Elves were my favorite characters in the book. I had fantasized about being a Silvan Elf when I was a little girl so this is a dream come true.'

Lilly plays Tauriel, a Silvan Elf who is also the head of the Elven Guards. She helps out Bilbo Baggins along with his band of dwarves from the elves of Mirkwood Forest which they will encounter on their way to the Lonely Mountain.

The Lost star describes Tauriel to Total Film as a very young elf -- she is only 600 as compared to elves such as Legolas who is 1,900 years old and Thranduil who is 3,000 years old. Because of this, '(s)he doesn't have quite the wisdom and pose that those two boys do; she's a little more... gritty. A little more spontaneous, passionate perhaps.'

Lilly has to wear a big red wig for the role, which she describes as so heavy.

'I would get such a headache wearing that wig,' stated Lilly, to which she added about playing the part of Tauriel, 'to have a certain amount of grace... But I'm also supposed to be an absolutely ruthless, deadly killer.'

Tauriel did not appear in the original Tolkien novel but director Peter Jackson decided to include her in the story mainly to feature another female character in the otherwise male-dominated story.

'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' opens in US theaters on December 13, in New Zealand on December 12, and in Australia on Boxing Day, December 26.