Elizabeth Olsen: Filming Marvel Scenes Is ‘Embarrassing’ and ‘Ridiculous’ Before CGI Effects

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Elizabeth Olsen’s role as the Scarlet Witch in the MCU leaves her blushing due to how “silly” the superhero genre is.

The “WandaVision” star revealed in a Variety cover story that filming Marvel movies is “just silly” in general.

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“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,” Olsen said. “And how spectacular the work is that goes into making these.”

Sans special effects, Olsen said the more serious, dramatic scenes can be “embarrassing” to film, especially like watching onscreen love interest Vision (Paul Bettany) perish in “Avengers: Infinity War.”

“It’s very embarrassing shooting those kinds of things, because, like, the world depends on you doing it,” Olsen said. “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 [directors] the Russos guiding us. And I just remember being giggly the rest of the day, while [Thanos actor Josh] Brolin had his helmet on. And I don’t know. These movies are very silly, but you have to act your ass off for them to work.”

Olsen also said about pretending to shoot magic out of her fingertips, “Ugh, I’m doing this in public. But you have one hand out that’s stopping something with energy. And then you’ve got another hand that’s extracting this fake thing from this dotted face. And it’s painful and emotional.”

The “Martha Marcy May Marlene” actress previously opened up about feeling “frustrated” over her MCU contractural obligations when trying to balance superhero movies and indie films.

“I had this job security but I was losing these pieces that I felt were more part of my being. And the further I got away from that, the less I became considered for it,” Olsen said earlier this year. “It took me away from the physical ability to do certain jobs that I thought were more aligned with the things I enjoyed as an audience member. And this is me being the most honest.”

Olsen also defended Marvel’s type of storytelling.

“I’m not saying we’re making indie art films, but I just think it takes away from our crew, which bugs me,” Olsen said. “From an actor’s point of view, whatever, I get it; I totally understand that there’s a different kind of performance that’s happening. But I do think throwing Marvel under the bus takes away from the hundreds of very talented crew people. That’s where I get a little feisty about that.”

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