Elizabeth Olsen discusses how her Marvel role has changed her career
Disney’s MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe for all you non-superhero lovers) is often put down for being a lesser form of entertainment in comparison to some of the most celebrated movies of the 21st century. With that being said, the franchise has many innovative high points, as well as a range of iconic actors, including Elizabeth Olsen, Michael Douglas, Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, and even Harrison Ford, who has recently joined the series.
Indeed, the series can be an invaluable way for less experienced actors to get a leg-up in the industry, with Elizabeth Olsen being one such performer when she joined the MCU in 2015. Granted, by the mid-2010s, Olsen had enjoyed several strong roles, starring in the excellent indie-flick Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011 as well as the monster movie Godzilla in 2014, but neither of these performances would compare to her character of Wanda Maximoff in MCU.
Appearing in five Marvel movies as part of an impressive ensemble cast, including most recently in Sam Raimi’s disappointing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Olsen impressed the most when she took on a leading role in the Disney+ TV show WandaVision.
Given time and space for her character to breathe, Olsen manages to properly bring Wanda to life, helping to tell a complex story about motherhood and regret. It was something of a revolutionary character for Olsen to play, revealing to The Talks, “As I’ve gotten older, I realized that I’m more attached to the characters than I think I am! Especially when it comes to a character like Wanda Maximoff, who I’ve played over several Avengers films, the WandaVision TV series, and now also in my new film Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”.
Continuing, Olsen adds, “I mean, it’s been quite a journey. I feel like as she’s grown, I’ve grown. It made me have a deeper love for Wanda and really excited to do something different with Dr. Strange, where she has a lot of clarity. It’s a different growth for her in this film. They’ve done a great job giving me an arc and something real to play”.
The arc of Wanda is indeed one of the MCU’s most recent feats of greatness, telling the story of a broken woman who has lost her husband and brother over the course of the franchise and now simply yearns for a family. Unfortunately for Olsen, however, and fans of the MCU in general, Raimi’s latest Dr. Strange movie wasn’t quite able to elevate her character, failing where WandaVision had so well achieved.
Released in 2021, WandaVision stunned fans and critics at the time for telling a story about a superhero who held an entire town hostage in an attempt to create a dream world that housed her ideal life. It was an ingenious idea that helped Olsen grow as a performer, with the actor expressing, “WandaVision taught me a lot! It also freed up my body. There’s this thing that happens when you do too much modern stuff, you start acting only with your upper body”.
Recalling how the performance was very physical, Olsen states, “Whereas with WandaVision, which is influenced by old fifties and sixties television series, you have to remember to move your entire body through space and tell a story physically. That was an amazing reminder for someone coming from the theater and not having done theater in such a long time: it makes me want to do theater again, I need it in my life”.
Take a look at the trailer for the celebrated Marvel series, below.
