The Marvel star takes us inside her transformation to a new kind of hero

GRAZIA: Elizabeth Olsen is a trooper. We are in a field in Surrey on the outskirts of the Marvel studios; it’s a biting minus one and she is standing in a Chanel broderie anglaise sundress and increasingly soggy UGG boots. Her feline cheekbones face skywards, but Olsen is slowly sinking into the mud, trilling out high notes to keep herself warm (possibly distracted) and of course with spirits high. “It was the wind I think, that was worse than the sideways rain,” she jokes as we trundle back to the soundstage hangar that we are using as a studio. It’s the kind of moment that could go viral on Instagram, that is, if Olsen were on social media. Yet one of the biggest stars of our current cultural moment is completely offline – and that surprising fact might just be the least interesting thing about her. If anything, it is a sign of how Olsen has come into her own as a confident, decisive star with the power to create her own universe.

On the cusp of her 32nd birthday, Olsen is fastidious and professional, yes, but also bright, engaging, creative, and collaborative. Born and raised in the California sunshine, she is surprisingly at ease in the blustery conditions that deluge the English countryside in late January – or, it’s that she’s very good at acting. “It was one of the ugliest days of this winter – just hilarious – but I knew we wanted the shot,” the 31-year-old actress says.

Since October, Olsen’s been living in the leafy British countryside with her “man-guy-partner,” musician Robbie Arnett, just a short drive to the Surrey compound where Doctor Strange is being filmed. It’s a closed set, masked in secrecy as much as the socially distanced masked crew dotted all over the 200-acre studio. “It feels right being in a small city right now,” she says.

Of course, more than ever, it feels right being an Avenger. Olsen will be reprising her role as Wanda Maximoff (nom de plume Scarlet Witch) in Doctor Strange, following the rampant success of Marvel’s current miniseries (and first foray into television) WandaVision, starring Olsen and Paul Bettany. Olsen has been part of the Marvel cinematic universe (and one of the most successful film franchises of the last decade) since 2014 when she cameoed in Captain America. Bridging nostalgia and action, the buzz of WandaVision is global: from critics to comic book fans, and almost everyone else. It is arguably one of the most meta screen offerings in a long time, arriving on our screens in television’s Renaissance.
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