Marvel fans aren’t oblivious to the flashy, candy-colored box-office titans that are the studio’s bread and butter. These action-packed blockbusters are tasked with capturing the beloved essence of the campy ’60s and ’70s comic book heroes and giving them a modern flair that appeals to wider audiences. Likewise, the celebrities charged with bringing these superhumans from page to screen are also fully aware of the silliness, and likely more so. In an interview with Variety, actress Elizabeth Olsen, who portrays Wanda Maximoff in the MCU, shared her experience playing a powerful reality-altering sorceress who deals in Chaos magic.
Olsen’s MCU debut was in a mid-credits scene in the Russo Brother‘s 2014 sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Audiences were introduced to the Maximoff twins by members of Hydra, as the organization’s experimental and miraculous new weapons against the Avengers. Since then, Olsen’s portrayal of both Wanda and the Scarlet Witch has cast a spell over fans in her ability to tap into a deep well of emotion for a character who has been through impossible heartache. From the loss of her parents and brother, to having to kill her own partner, Wanda has plenty of trauma to unpack. Still, Olsen can’t help “being giggly” in the midst of Thanos’ mass genocide when lookin at Josh Brolin wearing the character’s helmet.
In the Avengers: Infinity War, Earth finds itself at the mercy of a merciless cosmic tyrant, and the Avengers are the only defense between humans the decimation of half the population. For Wanda, that defense comes with an impossibly high cost. In order to stop Thanos, she must destroy the Mind Stone that’s embedded in the cranium of her partner Vision (Paul Bettany). Olsen admits that despite the devastating choice her character has to make, “it’s very embarrassing shooting those kinds of things.” However, she also appreciated sharing those scenes with Paul Bettany, stating,
And we did some improvising, which is hard to improvise those moments. But it also felt good, because at that point, Paul [Bettany] and I really had each other’s back. It was one of the last things we shot. I felt really comfortable with him as an actor if we had to improvise that beat a little bit. We were trying to find it, with the Russos guiding us. And then, once it was over, it was a huge amount of relief.
While Olsen generally felt relief filming with Bettany, she admits Vision’s appearance behind the scenes was a little ‘silly’, saying:
“He’s so purple. And then he has a layer of glitter over the purple. So, when he touches you or kisses you, you get glitter on you. And then you’re sweating also, because it was Atlanta. And so, he would just be melting. And then, he had these ear things where he’d have to open up his ears and go like this, and it would just drip water. It’s just silly. There’s a lot of silly stuff. I always wish that one day they just release a version of the film without any special effects, because then you understand how ridiculous it feels.”
The actress acknowledges that it’s these silly moments that prove just how “spectacular the work is that goes into making these,” from the cast and crew. Not only does it take hard work from the SFX, digital and makeup teams, but Olsen also credits the relationship with her fellow actors for making Marvel movies so cinematic. Fortunately, Olsen says she “felt really comfortable with [Bettany] as an actor,” lending to their undeniable onscreen chemistry in both the Marvel films and their Disney+ miniseries WandaVision. The series explores the frightening ways Wanda dealt with the trauma of losing Vision, which in turn led to trauma that set off the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the Halloween episode, even WandaVision pokes fun at the original comic design of Vision and the Scarlet Witch. In spite of all the glitter and campy goodness, Olsen says that the content of Marvel movies are “painful and emotional,” and “you have to act your ass off for them to work.”
Recently, Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige suggested that though Wanda seemingly met a painful and emotional end in the Doctor Strange sequel, Olsen’s involvement with the MCU may not be complete just yet. Feige admitted fans haven’t even seen some of the Scarlet Witch’s most important storylines from the comics, and that there’s plenty more to be explored. See the Scarlet Witch in action in the Multiverse of Madness trailer below:
