The one movie Elizabeth Olsen will never get tired of watching: “Always hits the spot”
Despite not being a household name, Wanda Maximoff became a key part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The enhanced human being, who goes by the name ‘Scarlet Witch’, was properly introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron before going on to appear in four more of the insanely popular superhero films. She also got to front WandaVision, the launching point for Marvel’s expansion into episodic TV. All of this is very good news for Elizabeth Olsen, who has portrayed the character since day one.
As the younger sister of tween superstars Mary-Kate and Ashley – yes, she’s younger than them – Olsen could easily have faded into the background. However, she decided she would play second (or third) fiddle, and established a career all her own. Alongside her work for Marvel, she has also fronted a number of dramatic projects, including Martha Marcy May Marlene and His Three Daughters, for which she won an Independent Spirit Award.
Olsen has been in plenty of great movies, but what does she like to watch in her spare time? Luckily for anyone wondering, Air Mail is on hand to provide an answer. As part of their rapid-fire interview series, the publication asked the star 44 questions in a row.
One of them was about her favourite movie. “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” she replied swiftly. “Always hits the spot”.
Released in 2001, Bridget Jones’s Diary is the big-screen adaptation of Helen Fielding’s novel, which itself began life as a series of newspaper columns. Renée Zellweger plays the titular character, a typical ‘30-something’ woman on the hunt for love. The film is very of its time, but remains popular to this day, having spawned three sequels and its own musical adaptation for the stage.
It might seem a little uninspiring to pick something so mainstream as your favourite, but films like Bridget Jones have never been given a fair shake of the stick. Film fans have always been quick to dismiss so-called ‘chick flicks’ as nothing but fluffy trash, when their only crime is being aimed at women. It’s refreshingly honest to hear someone as high-profile as Olsen champion the genre.
Despite the series being alive and well, Olsen has yet to appear. She hasn’t even crossed over that often with its stars. Chiwetel Ejiofor, a key player in the fourth film Mad About the Boy, is also in the MCU, playing Dr Strange’s nemesis Baron Mordo. She very nearly appeared alongside Colin Firth in Spike Lee’s remake of Oldboy. The Brit was offered the role of the film’s antagonist, but eventually passed it to Sharlto Copley. Close, but no cigar.
Given the nature of the interview, Olsen didn’t have much time to elaborate on her love for Ms Jones. She did, however, provide answers to other questions about her artistic tastes. She described Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers as her favourite piece of non-fiction, while her favourite novel is Circe by Madeline Miller, a retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of the witch Circe. Her favourite singers are prolific folk rocker Ani DiFranco and Waxahatchee frontwoman Katie Crutchfield.
When asked for her favourite TV show, she replied cryptically, “I could have kept going with Game of Thrones”. Most people who did keep going with the show would disagree.
