Elizabeth Olsen on why she loves playing complex characters like Wanda: "I can kind of be their lawyer"

The Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness actress says having "empathy for people we don't agree with" is "a good thing"

By Savannah Olson  |  May 6, 2022 | 6:41pm
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Elizabeth Olsen on why she loves playing complex characters like Wanda:
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Elizabeth Olsen at the NY screening of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Disney

If you gather anything from the new Marvel superhero outing Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, it’s that Wanda Maximoff will do anything to be a mother. She already entrapped a whole town against their consent to play along in her family sitcom fantasy on WandaVision, and she decides to do some even more morally ambiguous things in Doctor Strange 2 for the love of her two fake (sort of?) kids.

Speaking in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, the Scarlet Witch herself, Elizabeth Olsen, spoke about why she remains attracted to ethically dubious characters like Wanda and how viewers can learn from them—despite not agreeing with their deeds.

“I love playing characters whose actions people disagree with,” says Olsen. “In a world where we don’t really care to understand other points of view, I feel like if we as an audience can have empathy for people we don’t agree with, that’s a good thing. Then I can kind of be their lawyer and defend them. I get behind their actions, even if I don’t agree with them.”

Olsen also explains that she relished acting as a new version of Wanda that is more confident in herself than ever before.

“It was so fun for me because all these years I’ve been playing a character who is struggling; now, she has clarity for the first time—she knows exactly what she wants, and she doesn’t want to apologize for it,” she says before adding, “I think there’s a womanliness that comes with that: a strength in feeling completely entitled.”

Following up Doctor Strange 2, Olsen’s next project has her playing another character that people might find it difficult to be sympathetic towards. In the upcoming true crime HBO Max series Love And Death, Olsen plays Candy Montgomery—a Southern housewife who ultimately kills her friend after starting an affair with her husband.

With a cast that includes Lily Rabe (American Horror Story), Jesse Plemons (The Power Of The Dog), and Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous), Love And Death will be the second series based on this real life murder case. Hulu’s Candy, which stars Jessica Biel in the titular role, premieres on May 9.

 
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