Though she hails from a famous show biz family, and she’s now starring in her own Marvel TV series after appearing in multiple Avengers blockbusters, Elizabeth Olsen started out making indie films, like 2011 cult tale Martha Marcy May Marlene. So what inspired her shift from art-house to multiplex?
Though the, uh, obvious reasons any actor would want to think bigger (more fame, more money, all that shiny stuff) were no doubt part of the equation, Olsen specifically tied her ambitions to her love of a certain franchise from a galaxy far, far away. In an interview with Collider, she explained that she told her agent and manager that she wanted to steer her career in the direction of the specific movies she enjoyed watching as a kid.
[referenced id=”1664672″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2021/01/wandavision-is-a-nostalgic-escape-from-this-chaotic-reality-into-another/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/15/eoigglcixu9lfxvptvjw-e1610658762623-300×152.gif” title=”WandaVision Is a Nostalgic Escape From This Chaotic Reality Into Another” excerpt=”WandaVision’s first three episodes barely have the time to bother paying attention to Marvel’s larger “Cinematic Universe.” However, the Scarlet Witch’s promise to Thanos at the end of Avengers: Endgame is whispering throughout the new Disney+ series — even if Wanda might not be able to remember what she said.”]
“I was obsessed with Star Wars. You couldn’t peel me away from Star Wars as a child. And so I was trying to figure out, how do I start putting that out there because I feel like all I’m getting are these really disturbed women in independent films,” Olsen said, before laughing and pointing out, in regards to Wanda, “[Now] it’s just a disturbed woman in a big franchise!”
Her reps advised her to “take meetings with the people who run these companies and so I literally did,” Olsen went on to say. “I met with Kevin [Feige] and a couple other people that were working there at the time. And then I met with the people who were running Legendary [the studio that produced Godzilla, Olsen’s first big blockbuster] at the time. And there were a few others in different places.”
Head to Collider to read (or watch) the entire interview, which also features Olsen talking about what it was like to go from co-starring with Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Godzilla (playing his wife) to co-starring with Taylor-Johnson in Avengers: Age of Ultron (playing his twin sister). Because you know you’ve always wondered about that!
WandaVision is now streaming on Disney+.
[referenced id=”1665014″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2021/01/wandavision-opened-with-a-stylishly-old-fashioned-web-of-lies-and-intrigue-episode-1-recap/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/16/nd5vraaxsmgyff37mbzg-e1610915668752-300×145.png” title=”WandaVision Opened With a Stylishly Old-Fashioned Web of Lies and Intrigue” excerpt=”The first of WandaVision’s many secrets is one that the new Disney+ series actually reveals to you in the premiere episode’s first moments. You watch as Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) and her longtime beau, Vision, beeline straight from the altar to their new suburban home in the city of…”]