It doesn’t sound like Elizabeth Olsen would be too upset if she never heard from Marvel again

The WandaVision star is happy to have done it, but she wouldn't mind never doing it again

Aux News Elizabeth Olsen
It doesn’t sound like Elizabeth Olsen would be too upset if she never heard from Marvel again
Elizabeth Olsen Photo: Jon Kopaloff

Even if you like the Marvel movies (a perfectly valid opinion, and don’t let anyone bully you into thinking otherwise!), it can be a lot of fun when a longtime Marvel actor has finished putting in their time and no longer feels beholden to the Disney machine and can just be a real person who says whatever they want. Mark Ruffalo earned that freedom through brute force and by playing a character so integral to the movies that he can apparently never be replaced, no matter what he says, even though it has happened to that specific character many times.

WandaVision star and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness villain Elizabeth Olsen—a woman who has been through more for the MCU than most, if only because of the accent they made her do in Age Of Ultron—has officially reached the DGAF stage of her Marvel career. Late in May, she offered her very telling “just give them one” advice to aspiring mega-budget tentpole actors, and now she’s saying that she couldn’t especially care less if she never heard from Marvel again.

This came up during a chat with The White Lotus’ Meghann Fahy for Variety’s “Actors On Actors” series, when Fahy asked her if she missed playing Wanda:

No, I don’t. I think it’s been almost 10 years of playing her. And I’ve loved it. And I think the reason why I am not calling Kevin Feige every day with ideas is because I’m really proud of what we were able to do. I think WandaVision was a really surprising opportunity.

She also added that she would still be “proud of what we made” if someone called her up and told her she was “fired from Marvel movies.” These days, she says she’s more interested in trying to “load up other films and characters so it becomes less about the Marvel of it all.” In other words, she’d be fine never doing another Marvel movies, and she wants to do other things so people stop thinking of her as a Marvel actor first.

And hey, good for her. Everyone should just live their lives, even if that means making Marvel movies or not making Marvel movies or liking Marvel movies or not liking Marvel movies.

62 Comments

  • systemmastert-av says:

    And based on that last paragraph you didn’t want to have to write this!And based on that last sentence I didn’t want to read it!And yet the pop culture wheel must needs be lubricated with the sweat of the disinterested forevermore.

  • lattethunder-av says:

    Look at Barsanti out here trying to make a mountain out of something that doesn’t even qualify as a molehill.

    • loadasteriskcomma8comma1-av says:

      I understand why Barsanti was one of the few to move to L.A. It’s not like anyone else was going to pay his talentless self to do anything. Katie Rife should be a good warning sign to him to hang onto this gig for as long as he can – based on her twitter I assume she’s working at a GAP or something.

      • oodlegruber-av says:

        Barsanti really is a truly terrible writer. Not funny, not insightful, not charming, just a waste of time.

      • realtimothydalton-av says:

        these posts are so cheeto-scented lmao. I feel like youre spitting on your monitor while you type this

      • thepetemurray-darlingbasinauthorithy-av says:

        “So, Sam, if you want to keep your position here, you’re gonna have to move to LA. I know this is a big, weighty decisio-”“Done. I can be packed tonight. I’m there.”“You might want to think about it. You’ll be across the country from your friends, family who loves y.”“What- what are those things?”Note: Of course this is a fake conversation. Like GO would ever give a shit about the lives of its gig writers.

      • drkschtz-av says:

        Katie Rife has been published at Vulture, Roger Ebert, and Polygon in just the last 4 weeks. FYI.

        • loadasteriskcomma8comma1-av says:

          And I’m sure those handful of articles spanning a month were more than enough to pay rent in this economy.

    • drpumernickelesq-av says:

      “Actor in the Marvel universe has enjoyed being in the Marvel universe, but after 10 years, numerous movies, and a TV series, she’s fine saying goodbye to the character because there’s really not a lot left to do with the character at this point” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, I guess.

    • thepetemurray-darlingbasinauthorithy-av says:

      Has Elizabeth Olsen ever participated in a ball that was founded a racist who died ages ago? Maybe they should try to do something with that.

  • wangphat-av says:

    I don’t want the way things ended in Dr Strange 2 to be how things end for the character so I hope we see her again at some point. 

    • insertbuttjokehere-av says:

      Someone will happily play Wanda and we can accept the change.Hire the team that transitioned from Dick York to Dick Sargent on a previous witch-themed project.ETA: yeah…they’re all dead.

      • thepetemurray-darlingbasinauthorithy-av says:

        Someone will happily play Wanda and we can accept the change.Everyone deserves a second chance. Or a third chance, because T-How doesn’t exactly do maths good.

      • frankwalkerbarr-av says:

        You could hire the Back to the Future team. Most of the people who handled the Eric Stoltz to Michael J. Fox transition are still alive (even if that was easier because Eric’s scenes didn’t make it to the theater except maybe in one scene where Marty is facing away from the camera)

        • rob1984-av says:

          There was no transition from Stoltz to Fox. One was fired during production and all his scenes were re-short.

    • djb82-av says:

      yeah, especially because 1) WandaVision might be the best thing Marvel Studios has done and 2) selling that character short with an underdeveloped story was probably the most disappointing thing about Multiverse of Madness… they hit on something pretty special and then really didn’t know what to do with it after that…

      • loveg-av says:

        The sad part was that there was a writer who really wanted to make some sort of trilogy with Wanda as the pro/antagonist. Which would end with a hint of a tie-in with X-Men. I read this in an article somewhere. But they forewent that idea to go with what we have now, where she’s treated as another one-off villain.

      • mrluridreek-av says:

        This turn actually killed my interest in the MCU. If they’re going to waste my time, why bother?

    • drstephenstrange-av says:

      I fully expect a reveal in a future movie to be that she has been imprisoned in whatever Hell that Chthon calls home and he plans on using her as his link to the material plane. The heroes have to go in to save her.

  • bobwworfington-av says:

    The only thing she went through is a bunch of idiot fans misreading her interview and then getting mad when Mephisto didn’t show up to have a threesome with Reed Richards and Magneto.She’ll be in the Agatha thing.

    • dremiliolizardo-av says:

      Even if she is tired of it, it has been 10 years – which she helpfully pointed out – she’s allowed to want to do other things.Even Monet eventually got tired of painting haystacks.

      • bodybones-av says:

        but she didnt really say what the headline said. She basically just said yeah i loved it and i do other things too and dont sweat if a creative idea doesnt come yet…im litterally not the main arc right now and my character spoiler died…so why do i need to think i should come back. They are movies that film like in 3-5 months of work…i think the hot take that all actors hate them and they dislike stupid superhero antics is annoying. Yes their goofy costumes etc but im sure they also love the impression people get of them. EVERY movie will have you doing goofy stuff. I mean your faking about a reality that doesnt exist…from playing a mother to playing a super hero its all stupid. Why do we act like only prestige movies mean things to actors. Those are usually the most boring. 

        • starvenger88-av says:

          but she didnt really say what the headline said.The AV Club? Misrepresenting comments made by, well, anyone? I’m shocked. 

          • bodybones-av says:

            Yeah, click bait is one thing…but this is levels of just plain trying to start something. 

          • thepetemurray-darlingbasinauthorithy-av says:

            Oh, look, it’s the two-year anniversary of this bullshit:https://www.avclub.com/oh-great-ellie-kemper-is-yet-another-rich-white-celebr-1847010681

          • furioserfurioser-av says:

            Yes indeed. I accept that a certain amount of clickbait is essential for the business metrics of any online news/opinion/review site, but there’s two lines that should not be crossed. The first damages the relationship with the reader: ‘here’s a bafflingly incomplete headline that you have to click to see if the story is worth the click’ (answer: almost always not; if the story was interesting, the headline would not have been bafflingly incomplete). This is bad and annoying. But the second line is even worse because it damages credibility as a news source and encourages malignant social media reposting: ‘does this headline misrepresent the story?’

        • catmanstruthers-av says:

          When you achieve a certain degree of success it becomes not enough. Doing the same shit for ten years becomes stagnant.She should be grateful for that success, sure, but she’s never going to make anything more substantial than she already has playing Wanda Maximoff for the rest of her life. Let’s not pretend Marvel movies are Citizen Kane here, and let’s also not pretend Citizen Kane is “stupid” or meaningless.There’s art and then there’s art that’s been art that’s been compromised by big corporate interests such as Disney. Maybe she’s interested in making actual art, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s commendable actually.I don’t think anyone is pretending. Art in all its forms is vital, not stupid, and Marvel is… a thing.

      • rogue-like-av says:

        Not much of a tradeoff to go from haystacks to waterlilies…

      • earlydiscloser-av says:

        Yeah, and he released that song with Billy Idol.

      • ikaiyoo-av says:

        Did he though deep down inside. I think deep inside his heart he was always that young artist who was obsessed with haystacks. Or just too fucking lazy to walk more than three miles from his home.

    • spr0kets-av says:

      She’ll also be in Secret Wars.This is a nonsense article.She didn’t even say what this writer is attributing to her and to read it like she was suggesting she’s done with Marvel and wouldn’t care if they never called her again, is the most laughable interpretation of what she said.In other words, click-bait at its worst.

  • bobwworfington-av says:

    Tenoch Huerta accused of sexual assault. His ass can be kicked to the curb now. No one is building a multiverse on him 

  • thegobhoblin-av says:

    Ask not for whom the bait clicks.It clicks for thee.

  • pogostickaccident-av says:

    She’s not saying anything wild. She did the work and got her money. Even though these Marvel films are considered a coup for actors, it must be weird to be so beholden to them for so long if the MCU just kinda isn’t your thing. Other films come and go but MCU has a way of swamping these people’s identities and schedules. 

    • egerz-av says:

      The MCU is good for the actors because it gives them high profile roles and a nice paycheck and it’s kind of like working on a TV show that never gets canceled. But eventually they all seem to get tired of it, and it’s understandable because the franchise has gone on forever and it’s getting progressively less interesting. The press always wants to drag the actors when they admit in interviews that they’re a little tired of the MCU, even though *everyone* is getting a little tired of the MCU.It’s just a job that frees them up to do real acting if they want to. They don’t have to do cartwheels every time they’re asked about it.

    • wrightstuff76-av says:

      Hasn’t Elizabeth Olsen said previously that she’s never signed up to a multi-picture deal for MCU stuff? I think she treats each movie (or Disney+ show) as a separate thing, that may be the last thing she does as Wanda.She also had the freedom to go and do whatever things interest her, without the worry of having to turn it down because she’s stuck doing Avengers 5 in 2025 etc.

      It really is a shame how clickbaity AV Club has become, but I guess that’s modern journalism these days.

      • pogostickaccident-av says:

        To be honest I’m not sure. I remember that her career didn’t seem to rise to it’s potential after Martha Marcy May Marlene (though it’s hard to assert that actors who merely read other people’s scripts are owed a career) and it made sense to accept a franchise role. But it was impossible to know what MCU would become, and depending on the direction of your context, Wanda might be seen as more of an X-Man who wouldn’t obligate Elizabeth to commit a lot of time to the MCU. 

        • drzorders-av says:

          “it’s hard to assert that actors who merely read other people’s scripts are owed a career”What does that mean?

          • pogostickaccident-av says:

            It’s very common to say that an actor was the best part of a bad film or that a given actor deserves to be handed better scripts than what they’re currently getting, and that’s kind of silly where you think about it. Out of everyone participating in a project, the actor is the least essential to the existence of it; more people want to be actors than want to be writers and directors combined, and acting is the easiest to do well. I was commenting on this as it sometimes gets applied to Elizabeth specifically, this idea that Hollywood failed her somewhat. 

          • milligna000-av says:

            What fucking nonsense.

          • drzorders-av says:

            How incredibly rude and disrespectful of an entire artform. If its so easy, go be an Oscar winning actor right now. Go star in a network sitcom and win dozens of Emmys. Go win a Tony right now since acting is so easy.

  • theotherglorbgorb-av says:

    Have you been sitting on this since the original article from last month?Regardless, his particular Olsen has always struck me more of an arthouse actress. That said, she has Marvel residuals coming in now anyway. She doesn’t *have* to do another Marvel show or film, but it seems like a backhanded biting the hand that feeds you.

  • spr0kets-av says:

    I spy with my little eye, a Bait following a Click.

  • marenzio-av says:

    This headline is very very bad.

  • killa-k-av says:

    But what does Martin Scorsese have to say about all of this? Let’s get his opinion in here. And then ask everyone what they think about his opinion.

  • scnew1-av says:

    I wish there was a way to go back in time and un-click something I clicked on. 

  • cosmicghostrider-av says:

    Oh man this site is just clickbait right now. Between this and the other ridiculous article about the multiverse (that is just a plain stupid write up) I’m like…… it’s just disappointing. I’m having to really compartmentalize my expectations. It’s okay now that Pokemon HOME is open to Scarlet/Violet I’ll just…. do other things….. yah. This stuff isn’t worth reading.

  • TRT-X-av says:

    Honestly I don’t blame her. She cites Wandavision which was great but then they sorta undid a lot of that in MoM.She deserved a bit of a reckoning for what she did to Westview, but not how it went down in that movie. She played the role she was given well but it was a disservice to everything that came before it.

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