With blockbusters and Broadway under her belt, actress ELIZABETH OLSEN has well and truly stepped out of the shadow of her famous family. She tells CELIA WALDEN about her next steps – and why nakedness doesn’t scare her.
A few weeks ago, Elizabeth Olsen ran into Jane Fonda at the buffet bar in Soho House West Hollywood. “I’m so proud of you right now,” said the older actress. “I just couldn’t be prouder of my granddaughter.”
A lot has happened of late that is thrilling enough to elevate 26-year- old Olsen’s low voice to a girlish pitch. There was her transition from indie darling to blockbuster star in last year’s Godzilla and Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron; a move from New York back to LA in February; and the particularly fine Californian red wine that she has just bought from the Brentwood Country Mart deli in which we meet. But to be considered an honorary granddaughter to the grande dame of Hollywood is, she shrills, “really pretty cool!”
“The best thing about Jane is that she speaks in anecdotes,” explains Olsen, the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the former child stars turned designers of The Row and Elizabeth and James (named after their sister and 30-year-old brother). “The stories she tells about being in the south of France, jumping off clifftops into the water with Greta Garbo, are beyond anything you can imagine. She’s aware of how special those stories are and she wants to share them with people. Also, she has this great thing where she thinks of life in three acts: first thirty, second thirty and third thirty. She insists you can change who you are at any point, so that you never stop improving and evolving. That’s what I gleaned most from her.”
There is a pleasing symmetry to Olsen’s recent encounter – which happened at the precise moment her career had jumped to another level. After all, Fonda played her grandmother in her very first film, Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, in 2011. “Oh, it was a horrible movie,” shudders Olsen of the poorly received comedy drama, “even I think so. But it was my very first! When I saw that I’d be acting alongside Jane and Catherine Keener, I thought it was a pretty safe group of people to be alongside. And it was an amazing experience, so I didn’t mind too much what the critics said.”
Given the visceral media scrutiny her older sisters were subjected to growing up, Olsen is surprisingly thick-skinned. The California-born daughter of a mortgage banker father and a former ballet dancer mother decided to act relatively late (in Olsen terms, at least), at 17, after attending the prestigious Campbell Hall School in LA, studying Russian theater at the Moscow Art Theater School, and graduating from New York’s Tisch School of the Arts. Bookish and thoughtful by nature, she took the slow route, only truly emerging from the cocoon of her show- business family in Sean Durkin’s psychological thriller, Martha Marcy May Marlene, in which she masterfully under-played a young woman recently escaped from a cult. A rash of indie roles ensued – including John Krokidas’ Kill Your Darlings and Charlie Stratton’s excellent remake of Zola’s Thérèse Raquin, In Secret – which, although slight, were impressive enough to see her nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2013.
Clearly strong-willed, Olsen veered away early on from safe choices in her career. “I love Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett. I remember watching Holy Smoke and thinking that it was so reassuring to see a young Kate doing something that was so bold in so many ways,” she says. “I thought to myself, ‘OK, so it doesn’t destroy your career if you appear nude or take risks.’ Because not everyone in my family and group of friends thought it was the best idea to be naked in a movie. There are actresses, young and old, who have decided never to do that and they become these examples people talk to you about.” Nevertheless, she says, “there are times when I like to do it”, in Spike Lee’s edgy 2013 remake of Oldboy, for example. “You want that voyeuristic quality, but I never feel I have to be nude – and you won’t ever see me in a beauty shot in a bikini on a beach. That’s a character I will never play.”
However content Olsen was with her decisions, she came to realize that she was being overlooked for jobs that she “at least wanted to be considered for”. Her management team explained to her that it was due to her ‘indie actress’ status; she needed to put herself “out there”. Olsen took the advice and it wasn’t long before big studio roles started coming her way: first Godzilla, and then Avengers: Age of Ultron, in which she played “Scarlet Witch” Wanda Maximoff.
“You don’t say no to the Avengers,” smiles Olsen. “I’ve never experienced anything like it in terms of scale. We took over several towns in Italy and made them look like they were in the middle of a war. Then we moved the whole set to north London where we took over an old police academy. It was just insane; there were real explosions and you could feel the heat of them. And in amidst it all, a guy in a onesie shooting things. I couldn’t even make eye contact with that,” she laughs. “It was just too weird.”
There is a touching freshness and enthusiasm to Olsen’s responses, and a notable lack of both cynicism and entitlement. “I’ve always been aware of what the word ‘jaded’ meant,” the actress says earnestly. “Ever since I was a little girl, I remember thinking, ‘I never want to be that.’ I want to live my life with curiosity, always recognizing my luck and good fortune. Because to get to make a living out of your passion is amazing. And I’m aware that there are things that I might not be able to do in ten or fifteen years, whether it’s going to a fashion show or getting free clothes or doing a shoot for a brand.”
Just the other day, Olsen took a friend to the Elizabeth and James showroom “and we both left with a lot of stuff”, she admits, slightly shame-faced. “My sisters are the most inspiring women to me because of the way they lead their lives. They’re insanely diligent and they taught me that you can do whatever you want if it’s your passion and you work hard at it.”
Right now, this Olsen sister’s passion is directed towards ballet – a hobby she began when she was a teenager – and learning Italian for a forthcoming vacation to Positano with her girlfriends. But what she wants to pursue above all else is a stint on the West End stage: “When I did Romeo & Juliet Off-Broadway [in 2013], what I loved most was that while you’re up there for those two hours, everything else that happened that day is forgotten about. You’re just in the zone.” She is interested in rumors of a new London play, Hangmen, by Martin McDonagh, but has heard that the Irish playwright “wants British actors for authenticity”.
“I want to do it so badly,” she sighs, “but maybe I’ll have to wait for an American play to come on.” And maybe, as according to Fonda’s maxim, that will be Elizabeth Olsen’s “second act”.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is out May 1 (US)
The camera really loves her, she's stunning but also really badass. I just hope she won't be underused in the next films because she's a perfect addition to the group and a key-character in the comics, but Elizabeth is barely mentioned in the promo campaign.
