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We’ve already shared Kate Mara’s story about booking Iron Man 2 and the lessons learned from her experience working on Fantastic Four, but we’ve got one last clip to highlight before unveiling her full Collider Ladies Night interview tomorrow. Turns out, Mara came pretty close to booking a role on the hit show Lost, which kicked off in 2004 and enjoyed a six-season run on ABC.

During our conversation, Mara highlighted being “blissfully unaware” of the challenges of building a career as an actor because she started so young and was just focused on doing something that she loved. But, of course, the pressures of needing to book roles did creep in and Mara got hefty dose of that during her first pilot season in Los Angeles. Here’s how she put it:

“I moved to Los Angeles when I was 19, and I moved out on my own and I knew no one. And I didn’t want to leave New York. I’m from New York. I love it there. I was living in New York City at the time, but I thought, ‘This is gonna help my career, so I gotta get out there.’ And I did and I did my first pilot season, which was really intimidating and a lot of pressure, but I was very close to booking that old TV show Lost. Basically it was the whole cast that you see on the show, and me. I think I’m the only one that didn’t get a part in it.”

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Image via ABC

Would it have been nice to book Lost? Sure! The show was a huge success and a game-changer for many involved. But, Mara continued by highlighting how a bump in the road could just be nudging you down a different path, maybe even for the better:

“At the time, I was really bummed, but what I learned was, about a week later, I auditioned for Brokeback Mountain and while my role in Brokeback Mountain is very small, I wouldn’t have been able to do that or even audition for it if I had booked Lost. So I do think that taught me that a lot of the times if you’re not booking something it’s because either you’re gonna learn something somewhere else or there’s another job out there that just wouldn’t be happening if you booked this one. And Brokeback will forever be one of my favorite movies of all time and one of the most special things I’ll ever be a part of I think.”

One of the biggest takeaways from my full conversation with Mara for Ladies Night is how she continued to embrace the idea of learning and growing with every single experience. Be sure to tune back in tomorrow to hear about how meeting director Gabriela Cowperthwaite had a major personal and career impact on Mara, how she’s grown as a producer while working on A Teacher, and loads more in her full episode of Collider Ladies Night.

You can catch Mara in the first four episodes of A Teacher right now on FX on Hulu.

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