The Woody Allen movie that showed Elizabeth Olsen she had a place in Hollywood
In terms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are few stars who’ve taken the world by storm quite like Elizabeth Olsen, having portrayed Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the likes of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War/Infinity War/Endgame and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
However, it’s also fair to say that Olsen has given her fair share to non-Marvel films too. Her debut arrived in 2011 with the thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene before she went on to star in the horror Silent House, the monster flick Godzilla along with the mystery Wind River, so there are certainly a few strings to the California actor’s bow of talents.
But for all of Olsen’s success in Hollywood, her passion for acting had to begin somewhere, and it looks as though she owes a lot to a specific actor and director. During a feature with Rotten Tomatoes, Olsen once named her five favourite films of all time and paid particular attention to a 1977 classic.
“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,” Olsen said. She’d been referred specifically to Allen and Keaton’s satirical romantic comedy-drama Annie Hall.
Keaton and Allen worked together on several movies throughout their respective careers, but Annie Hall is often the one that stands out from the rest, certainly in the eyes of Olsen. Allen plays Alvy Singer, a man in the throes of a recent breakup who’s desperate to figure out the reasons while. Keaton, meanwhile, plays his titular girlfriend.
The big thing for Olsen, though, regarding Annie Hall was that it showed her that there was room for her in the film industry and that not every actor had to be overtly sexualised; they could also be a bit “nerdy” and “neurotic”, and in that sense, Allen and Keaton’s film was an essential piece of cinema for the young acting hopeful.
Signing off on her admiration for Annie Hall, Olsen noted: “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 character-y person. I’m not really the sexy one, but I am a neurotic, nervous, but semi-intelligent one, but I also say stupid things.’”
Check out the trailer for Annie Hall below to get a flavour of Olsen’s profound admiration.
