“I thought it was perfect for television, and a very original idea that made me excited.”

BUZZFEED: To celebrate the highly anticipated release of WandaVision, we sat down with Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany to chat about the first two episodes and what it was like putting Wanda and Vision in this sitcom setting.

Here’s everything we learned:

? There are spoilers ahead for the first two episodes of WandaVision. So, if you haven’t watched them yet, you might want to bookmark this for later. ?

1. First, Paul Bettany found out about WandaVision right after Vision died in Infinity War. In fact, Paul thought he was getting called into Marvel because he was getting fired, not because they wanted to pitch him a show.

“I looked at my wife and I went, ‘I think I’m getting the can.’ I was very nervous as I go over there. I wanted everybody to feel comfortable and not feel icky about the whole thing, because I thought they were going to be gentlemen, and just look me in the face and say, ‘It’s over,'” Paul explained. “So I went in, I said, ‘Look, there’s just absolutely no hard feelings. It’s been a great run. Thank you so much.’ And they were like, ‘Are you quitting?’ And I went, ‘No, aren’t you firing me?’ And they went, ‘No, we were gonna pitch you a TV show.’ That’s how I found out.”

 

2. Meanwhile, Elizabeth learned about WandaVision while getting ready to “do pickups for Endgame.”

She said she had a similar experience to Paul where she wasn’t sure what she was being called into Marvel for.

 

3. Elizabeth said she was initially “very thrown by the whole TV part of it all,” but once she heard the concept and the story, she was sold.

She explained, “I thought it was perfect for television, and a very original idea that made me excited.” Also, she was happy she would get to work with Paul again.

 

4. Paul’s favorite memory from filming the first episode was “running around backstage” alongside Elizabeth and Kathryn Hahn and just being “so nervous” to perform in front of a live studio audience.

He also remembers bumping into Kathryn and Elizabeth at the prop table backstage while filming, and it just felt like they were all doing a “school play.”

 

5. Originally, Paul was “really resistant” to the idea of filming in front of a live studio audience, but finally just went for it and had so much fun.

 

6. Meanwhile, Elizabeth thought it was “terrifying” performing in front of a live studio audience, and she had so much adrenaline from “first day nerves” when filming began.
Elizabeth as Wanda making a mixing bowl levitate

Elizabeth continued, saying, “The only thing that was getting me through is knowing that I trusted Matt Shakman, and if it was a failure, he would let me reshoot it the next day. But we did it.”

 

7. Elizabeth said it was amazing to watch the Marvel special effects team who are “used to blowing things up” become “puppeteers” and figure out how to make all of the magic happen in the kitchen with Wanda.

“My favorite one was watching two of our special effects guys puppeting a dish rag trying to dry a cup,” she said. “It was so complicated and so frustrating for them. They figured it out. But it was really funny watching them trying to figure out how to bounce a dishrag to dry a cup.”

 

8. Elizabeth felt “so lucky” to welcome Kathryn Hahn and Teyonah Parris to the MCU with WandaVision — she said, “I can’t imagine this show being with any other people.”

9. And Paul said welcoming them to the family made him recall how amazing it was to join the cast, in person, in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

“
I loved the experience because I remember everybody being incredibly welcoming to me when I first arrived, in person, on Age of Ultron. There is a real family feel,” Paul said.

 

10. Paul described Kathryn and Teyonah as “delightful, funny, and super bright” and he said they are both “inordinately talented and willing to go along and join you in the style and the ride.”

11. Elizabeth said that there were a lot of times while filming WandaVision where she and Paul would get “caught up in giggles” but because of how fast they filmed, they had to try really hard not to break character.

She explained, “There is a moment, that I cannot right now formulate in my memory, that I just remember laughing every time we were looking at each other, and feeling the pressure of, like, ‘You really have to suck it up right now.'”

 

12. Elizabeth’s favorite sitcom style they used in WandaVision was the ’70s, which will be seen in Episode 3.

She said, “I think the ’70s was very fun, because I thought it was very fun to film a sitcom version of pregnancy.”

 

13. And Paul loved coming back to film exteriors for Episode 2 after their hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic — he said it was a “lovely feeling” to know that they were able to finish with everything going on.

14. Even after so many Marvel movies, Paul said he still can’t stop laughing whenever he has to film a scene where he’s “supposed to be floating in the air and then [having] to look up and look dynamic and cool.”

Paul laughed, saying, “I just can’t take myself seriously.”

 

15. Out of his entire time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Paul says he’s “most proud” of wrapping WandaVision in the middle of a pandemic.

Paul explained, “In the middle of this thing that has sort of decimated production around the globe, we got through it without a single case. Everybody really stuck to the rules and really took it seriously. [It] really, genuinely made me feel so proud.”

 

16. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is really proud of the moments in this show that she thought were going to be “really hard to pull off,” but they ended up making it all work.

She continued, saying, “When something seems, like, kind of impossible, and then you just have to thrust yourself into it because it’s the day that you’re supposed to do it.”

 

17. And finally, Elizabeth said that the “greatest thing” Marvel has given her as an actor is the “freedom” to not overthink anything and just “jumping into the deep end.”

Check out our full video with Elizabeth and Paul about WandaVision and their time in the MCU below!