Welcome to Elizabeth Olsen Source: your best source for all things related to Elizabeth Olsen. Elizabeth's breakthrough came in 2011 when she starred in critically-acclaimed movies Martha Marcy May Marlene and Silent House. She made her name in indie movies until her role in 2014 blockbuster Godzilla and then as Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff in Marvel's Avengersand Captain America movies. Elizabeth starred in and was an Executive Producer for Facebook Watch's "Sorry For Your Loss". She is currently starring in WandaVision, the first Marvel TV Series on Disney+. She will also be in Marvel's Dr. Strange sequel and hopefully we'll see another indie movie from her! Enjoy the many photos(including lots of exclusives!), articles, and videos on our site!
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Press: Elizabeth Olsen and Jurnee Smollett Compare Notes on Genre-Blending Acting and Advocating for Performers on Set

VARIETY: Neither Elizabeth Olsen nor Jurnee Smollett are strangers to having to really stretch their imaginations to dive into complex characters and even more complicated worlds.

Both have superhero films on their résumés: Smollett portrayed Black Canary in DC’s “Birds of Prey,” while Olsen stepped into Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch’s shoes for Marvel’s “Avengers” franchise and then some — including Disney Plus’ first Marvel series, “WandaVision.” They are both now Emmy-nominated for projects that tasked them with jumping through time, blending genres and telling epic love stories (Olsen with “WandaVision,” Smollett with HBO’s “Lovecraft Country”). And, even though they are up in different categories (Olsen in lead limited series/TV movie actress; Smollett in lead drama actress), both of these shows are one-season wonders, leaving the performers and their audiences wanting more.

Olsen and Smollett dissected all that of when Variety brought them together post-nominations to talk about their celebrated roles and surreal playgrounds.

You both had a lot of magical or otherwise surreal elements to interact with on your shows. What did you actually have in front of you to react to on set?

Jurnee Smollett: We were very fortunate on “Lovecraft Country” because the whole VFX team worked so hard to create an atmosphere that was also practical in our space. I remember on Episode 3, the exorcism scene, we shot it over a course of three days and, while there was not a man in real life with a baby head on him, you’ve got the wind machines and the pictures are blowing and all the special effects makeup is being touched up. Atticus [Jonathan Majors] has pretty much turned into a rabid dog and I’m doing this spell with my ancestors and whether they were shooting behind us or shooting the elements, we were at our max capacity regardless because that’s just how we approach the craft. It was such a big sequence to shoot that that’s when the actor in you has to advocate for your instrument. I did go to the director and say, “Can you jump in and cross shoot Jonathan and I?” As an actor it is our job to shoot however many takes, however many angles you need, but then it is also our job to advocate for yourselves. And I love playing in this space because you get to use your imagination you get to go to crazy places. Because even while the practical elements are there; you get to go to crazy places. But I was grateful for the practical elements because it’s just so much easier.

Elizabeth Olsen: Did they have pre-viz so you knew what some of the supernatural elements looked like?

Smollett: With the Shoggoths they not only had a pre-viz for us, but for some of the scenes they had massive sculptures, like a dude standing there in a green suit with a Shoggoth head. The pilot we didn’t have this puppet, but by Episode 8, maybe we got more of a budget or something, but eventually we did get a puppet — which was really cool because you could see, “This is the moment his mouth is opening.” But also, Misha [Green], our showrunner, she just wants more blood, more dirt. She’d try to get them to blow spittle at us.

Olsen: That’s so gross!

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August 13 2021
Press: Elizabeth Olsen on the Unexpected Challenges of ‘WandaVision’

I don’t know how I missed this article! But here it is

Olsen talked about her first Emmy nomination and about why the series exceeded her expectations compared with more typical Marvel fare.

 

NY Times: In a year with so much strangeness and uncertainty, “WandaVision” at first seemed to offer a nostalgic antidote with its tidy suburban setting and its vintage black-and-white aesthetic. That lasted all of two episodes before the writers blasted a colorful hole through the protective wall of static surrounding the fictional town of Westview, N.J. — and through its viewers’ (and its critics’) early expectations.

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Featuring Elizabeth Olsen, the series’s clever mix of classic sitcom conventions and superhero spectacle made it a hit with even those who aren’t deeply versed in Marvel trivia. It was also a hit with Emmys voters: On Tuesday, the series picked up 23 nominations, including a best actress nod to Olsen for her role as the superhero-in-hiding next door Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Avengers’ Scarlet Witch. (Olsen’s male counterpart, Paul Bettany, who plays her android husband, Vision, was also nominated, as was the show for best limited series.)

“WandaVision” is finished, but Olsen, who scored her first Emmy nomination for her role, has said her character must still face a reckoning for holding an entire town hostage in order to live out her suburban fantasy — most likely in the upcoming film “Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.” “I think she has a tremendous amount of guilt,” she said in a recent oral history of the series by Rolling Stone.

A few hours after her nomination was announced, Olsen talked about why she thinks the show was particularly resonant during the pandemic, about being overseas as the show became a pop-culture phenomenon and about whether the Scarlet Witch is Marvel’s most powerful Avenger. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Congrats on your first Emmy nomination. Where were you when you found out?

I was emptying my dishwasher.

Who was the first person you told?

I didn’t tell anyone yet! I got off a dialect coach lesson and started taking these calls.

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July 23 2021
Press: Congratulations Elizabeth Olsen and WandaVision!

WandaVision did so well in the Emmy Nominations. And finally, Elizabeth got an Emmy Nomination! (she should have gotten one for Sorry for Your Loss)

Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series*
WandaVision

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie
WandaVision
• Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie
WandaVision
• Paul Bettany as Vision

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie
WandaVision
• Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness / Agnes The Nosy Neighbor

Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Program (Half-Hour)
WandaVision

Outstanding Casting For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie
WandaVision

Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes
WandaVision
• Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience

Outstanding Directing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie
WandaVision
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July 13 2021
Press: Scarlett Johansson Offers High Praise For WandaVision’s Elizabeth Olsen

THE DIRECT: The small screen branch of the MCU has used WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to propel new heroes like Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch and Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson a.k.a. Captain America to the forefront of the franchise.

Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, meanwhile, is set to take matters into her own hands on the big screen by leading her solo film, Black Widow. After sacrificing her life for the Soul Stone during Avengers: Endgame, this film will revolve around Romanoff’s story while being on the run from the Sokovia Accords in between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

The prequel will likely serve as Johansson’s last hurrah in the MCU, and early reactions towards the film suggest that she will make a triumphant exit to the franchise. Looking ahead, Johansson is leaving the Marvel turf with her head up high, especially after the introduction of notable female heroes over the years.
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June 26 2021
Press: WandaVision Star Elizabeth Olsen Calls Scarlet Witch an MCU Criminal


COMICBOOK: Throughout the nine episodes of WandaVision, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) kept an entire town of New Jersey residents under her sway. Within “The Hex” she established around Westview, the Scarlet Witch served as the puppet master to hundreds, if not thousands, of residents. Olsen herself says the character’s actions were criminal, and she’ll most certainly be on the run by the time we see her next.

“Like, she just did something that makes her a criminal. So, in my mind, the next step in her life is this new sense of identity, of knowing the acts that she committed and her own accountability of it,” Olsen said on the latest episode of Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast.

That’s when the actor added that she feels like she needs to be on the run, thanks to the involvement of SWORD and other governmental agencies.

“All these big trucks are coming in and all these military men and women are coming into assess the situation, and she flies away,” Olsen continued. “Like, she needs to escape, or she’s going to get in trouble, and she doesn’t wanna get in trouble. And so she went away with her grief and her shame and is now… I didn’t think of her as… I don’t think of her being in that home in the tag, she is at peace but she now, for the rest of her life, hiding.”

Whatever the case, Scarlet Witch’s future stories will have to be explored outside of WandaVision. Olsen has confirmed the show was developed as a limited series, suggesting a second season isn’t in the works as of yet and likely won’t be.

“No, it’s definitely a limited series,” Olsen shared with Variety earlier this month. “I mean, I’m saying that. I don’t know. With Marvel, you can never say no. Do people die? You know?”

WandaVision is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+.

June 19 2021
Press: WandaVision Was Elizabeth Olsen’s Exercise in Reclaiming Her—and Wanda’s—Power

On this week’s Little Gold Men, Olsen explains why she was “mortified” to share WandaVision with the world and teases her upcoming turn in Doctor Strange.

 

VANITY FAIR: Despite her onscreen superhero status, Elizabeth Olsen admits to Vanity Fair’s Joanna Robinson that she gets “panic dreams” before beginning a new project. That was never more so the case than with WandaVision, the genre-bending Disney+ series that imagined Wanda Maximoff and Vision’s (Paul Bettany) married adventures through a sitcom-style lens. But after the show premiered to rave reviews and an eager fanbase, Olsen’s nerves about launching the Marvel TV empire could melt away, right?

That is, until she suited up as the Scarlet Witch once more for Sam Raimi’s upcoming sequel, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Although writer Michael Waldron has compared the titular character to Indiana Jones, Olsen insists that the final product is edgier than that figure’s action epics. “I think it’s more than a glossy Indiana Jones movie, which I love Indiana Jones,” Olsen says on the latest Little Gold Men episode, adding, “But I feel like it has a darker thing going on.”

This week’s Little Gold Men podcast is a Disney+ double feature, featuring an interview with Sebastian Stan of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (also courtesy of Joanna). She joins Vanity Fair’s executive Hollywood editor, Jeff Giles, Richard Lawson, and Katey Rich in a conversation about Witness, which gave Harrison Ford his only Oscar nomination to date. Other top of mind topics include the lackluster box office performance of In the Heights, Emmy buzz for Bo Burnham’s Netflix special Inside, and Pixar’s newest release Luca, which arrives on Disney+ Friday.

This is a partial transcript:

You’ve talked about Wanda coming into her own power, discovering her power. Something that I think is so interesting is you were doing work as an executive producer on Sorry For Your Loss. And I was wondering what that experience taught you about your power, your ability to have input over your acting choices or your acting roles going forward?

It was incredible. It was truly one of the greatest learning experiences I could have had. I saw how everything can be done if I ever wanted to direct something, which I’m not sure yet. But I have seen how maybe the healthiest way to crew up a show is, to a writers room, to the whole journey in between and editing and color correction and sound mixing. All the things that I had wanted to experience, I got to do that on that show. And it created this neverending voice in my head that now just expresses all of her opinions when I’m on set. It’s great working with. Like, I’m starting to work with another director right now and it’s great just saying, when people sometimes would ask me, “How would you like to work?” I wouldn’t really know how to answer that because I’ve always been malleable to if other actors like working specific ways. I’m cool to kind of be fluid in that zone.

Now I can just say, “It’s really good for me to have all the information, just so I don’t have to ask questions in my head and think, why are they doing that instead of this?” But if I just have the information of “Oh, this is an issue, so we’re doing this instead” then I’m not going to try and make up what the issue is and spend weeks trying to figure out, “Why are we doing it this way?” S I know that that’s now something. I just like having information, even when I’m not a producer. It just helped. I’m sure other actors would be like, “How the fuck would you keep all that straight?” And it actually rests my brain. It rests my monkey brain, I think. to just have facts and information about how everything’s going, why schedules are changing. Yeah, I loved that experience.

So thinking about who you were on that set versus who you were on Age of Ultron, which is so much earlier in your career, how do you compare those two women?
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June 19 2021
Press/Video: Variety’s Virtual TV Fest – Marvel

‘WandaVision,’ ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ and ‘Loki’ Stars on Missing Tom Hiddleston’s Lectures and Who Texts Kevin Feige the Most

 

VARIETY: Being a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe equips its stars with unique powers both on-screen and off.

“We all have a number sign above our heads when we make independent films [for] whether or not we can sell them internationally to help get financing,” says Elizabeth Olsen. “If we want to do that, it does allow us to be able to do that. So, I think that’s a great benefit to being a part of such a huge international franchise.”

Olsen first appeared as Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, in Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in 2015 before going onto such films as “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Endgame.” In-between she worked on indies including “Ingrid Goes West” and the television series “Sorry for Your Loss” for Facebook Watch. This past television season, though, she brought her big-screen superhero to Disney Plus, headlining “WandaVision” alongside Paul Bettany.

The ability to flit between platforms at all can be special for actors, but to do so with the same character is a testament to the power of the MCU. And Olsen and Bettany were only the first to move from film to TV under the Marvel Studios banner. Soon they were followed by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and Tom Hiddleston in “Loki,” all of whom are taking part in a special panel at Variety’s Virtual TV Fest.

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June 10 2021
Press: (RUMOR) Wanda Will Reportedly Be Responsible For The Sinister Six Entering The MCU

WE GOT THIS COVERED: As far as we know, Elizabeth Olsen isn’t involved in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but she has been rumored for a cameo appearance just like virtually anyone to have ever appeared in either a Sony or Marvel Studios movie involving the web-slinger in some fashion over the last two decades.

Whether she winds up putting in an appearance or not, we can gather that Tom Holland’s third solo outing will be the middle chapter in a multiversal trilogy, bookended by Disney Plus’ WandaVision and next March’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. So, even if Scarlet Witch doesn’t show up in person during No Way Home, you can guarantee that her fingerprints will still be all over the broad strokes of the plot.

Of course, the majority of the most recent speculation surrounding the MCU threequel has revolved around the Sinister Six, with three members each hailing from both the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb timelines. And we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Captain America 4 with Anthony Mackie was in the works long before it was confirmed – that Wanda will be responsible for them entering the MCU.

According to our information, it’ll be tied to WandaVision‘s post-credits scene, where the franchise’s most powerful hero hears her children calling out to her from a different reality. This causes Scarlet Witch to go on a tear through the multiverse to try and find them, with the butterfly effect eventually weakening the barriers and allowing Green Goblin, Sandman, Doctor Octopus, Lizard, Electro and Rhino to make their way to the present day timeline where they’ll cause some serious trouble for Peter Parker, presumably leading to Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s protagonist roping in a bit of multiversal backup of his own to try and even the odds in his favor.

June 08 2021