A few years ago, Elizabeth Olsen was trying to prove she was more than the younger sister of child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images files
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A few years ago, Elizabeth Olsen was trying to prove she was more than the younger sister of child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley. The extra effort in the 2011 film Martha Marcy May Marlene seemed to work. She earned raves from critics for her performance and a high-profile best actress nomination at the pre-Oscar Independent Spirit Awards.
The 25-year-old followed that breakout with a string of modestly budgeted movies, but now her indie status is about to change in a big way.
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Article content Olsen is co-starring in the mega-superhero flick The Avengers: Age of Ultron portraying the Scarlet Witch. She also has a high-profile role in the latest version of the monster movie Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards.
It’s quite a career shift.
“The reason why I thought of doing a movie like [Godzilla] was the childlike imagination you need to have in rooting it in reality,” said Olsen in a Canadian exclusive interview with Postmedia News at her Manhattan hotel suite.
In Godzilla, Olsen plays a nurse and the wife of a U.S. Navy officer (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who is eventually assigned to stop the mammoth beast from running amok in San Francisco. Bryan Cranston is the soldier’s father and a nuclear plant engineer who also desperately tries to save the day.
The special effects are state-of-the-art and the action is eye-popping. That’s in contrast to the original, Ishiro Honda’s 1954 black-and-white flick from the Toho production house (which released 27 more creature feature spinoffs).
Despite the huge sets on various Vancouver and area sound stages for the new movie, Olsen was relieved to discover during filming that Edwards focuses on the performances as much as the technical aspects of a movie.
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Article content “Gareth comes from the same kind of independent background and understanding as I do,” noted the actress, referring to his 2010 low-budget directorial debut Monsters. “So, actually, I never felt odd or out of place.”
She did have to adjust, occasionally. For instance, the mechanics of acting in a special-effects movie require a different kind of focus.
“You need to be specific; like take seven steps to your right,” Olsen said.
“You have to get used to those technical aspects and the timing and the camera movements but still find the freedom to act.”
Godzilla also marked her first assignment opposite a child actor; Carson Bolde plays her four-year-old son. Improvising with him became a must.
“We had a four-year-old who played four,” Olsen said. “He’s very open and easy to connect with but when the camera’s rolling it keeps you on your feet because you learn quickly things will always change.”
Another Godzilla benefit? It prepared her for The Avengers sequel (currently filming in London) in which she re-teams with Taylor-Johnson who plays Quicksilver, the twin to Olsen’s Scarlet Witch.
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Article content “We only did a few scenes together in Godzilla.” she said of Taylor-Johnson. “But we spent time together in Vancouver and I got to know his family. I was really lucky that I had that so we could play a tight twin brother and sister in The Avengers.”
Whatever her next film, she said she will continue to apply a strict set of rules governing what she will do; like a director she can trust and production house with a solid reputation.
“And I always want to make sure I’m in a fully fleshed out story about something that I’m going to learn from,” she said. A smiling Olsen shrugged before admitting, “It’s limiting but it’s liberating at the same time.”
