Elizabeth Olsen’s favourite movies of all time: “One of the most disturbing films”
Born into fame, Elizabeth Olsen took her first tentative steps into acting at a time when her sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, were already five films deep.
Her first roles were in her sister’s movies. However, in her 20s, she started developing a separate film career, appearing in such movies as Silent House and Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, which were both released in 2011 and coincided with Olsen’s career breakthrough in Martha Marcy May Marlene, in which she starred opposite Sarah Paulson.
She has since appeared in a diverse range of films, including 2013’s Kill Your Darlings and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. The latter would prove to be a huge money spinner for Olsen. Her time as The Red Witch would not only give her a successful run in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but would also turn into a lucrative TV show with WandaVision. But while making big-budget movies is always fun, Olsen has always been in love with real cinema.
Like Olsen’s filmography, her list of favourite movies of all time is an eclectic mix. When she sat down with Rotten Tomatoes back in 2017, she named five films that share very little in common: First Wives Club, Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom, A Woman Under The Influence, Annie Hall and Return to Oz, the latter of which was her “favourite films as a kid”.
“If you watch it any time recently,” she conceded, “it’s one of the most disturbing films made for children.” The movie is certainly piqued towards the creepy. But while all kids’ movies have a touch of unwanted ick about them, Return to Oz feels particularly odd.
Equally disturbing is Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom. Though, admittedly, it was never advertised as being for children. That hasn’t stopped them from watching it, of course. “I know; usually, people like The Last Crusade, and there’s a lot of love for Raiders, because it’s the original. But Temple of Doom is just, to me, so funny and entertaining and fun,” Olsen said. “And the kid from Goonies — Hot Shot? Short Round. He’s so funny, and I grew up with Goonies, but I prefer him in Indiana Jones.“
Of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, which traces the rise and fall of a lonely comedian’s relationship with a vivacious nightclub singer, Olsen had this to say: “Woody Allen, namely the Diane Keaton collaborative days, those movies were really important to me when I was like 15, 16 years old, because it was when I discovered watching them and went through the canon.”
For Olsen, it was a movie, and a role, that helped her to feel seen. “I, for the first time, had seen a woman that I was like, ‘Oh, I can be that kind of a woman. I’m not really the nerd, I’m not really the charactery person. I’m not really the sexy one, but I am a neurotic, nervous, but semi-intelligent one, but I also say stupid things.'”
For Olsen, like so many other women, it was a piece of representation which she hadn’t found in many other places, “It felt comforting to know that that was an example of a kind of woman I could be when I grew up and when I was going through that transition in teenagehood.”
A few years before, Olsen had named another Woody Allen film as one of her all-time favourites in a separate interview with Rotten Tomatoes: 1979’s Manhattan, Allen’s love letter New York. “I can watch Diane Keaton in a Woody Allen movie over and over and over again,” she said. “Any time I’m on location somewhere foreign, I watch those two movies ’cause they remind me of New York and being happy. I have them on my computer.”
There are many great reasons to fall in love with the work of Elizabeth Olsen, but knowing that it comes form a sincere place and a deep appreciation of cinema is as good a reason as any.
You can check out Olsen’s full list below.
Elizabeth Olsen’s favourite movies:
- The First Wives Club (Hugh Wilson, 1996)
- Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984)
- A Woman Under The Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
- Return to Oz (Walter Murch, 1985)
- Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
- Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
- Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
- Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)
- Pal Joey (George Sidney, 1957)
