Elizabeth Olsen got her start in the theatre and her big break — all her breaks — in independent films. From Martha Marcy May Marlene to Liberal Arts, Kill Your Darlings and the new period piece In Secret, the younger sister of Olsen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley has put commercial considerations on the back burner, even as she dipped her toe in potentially more commercial films such as last autum’s Oldboy.
But now, with Godzilla due in theatres and the role of Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, in the Avengers sequel that shoots this spring and summer, Lizzie Olsen is stepping into the big budgets and big paydays of mainstream Hollywood. Not that she sees it that way.
“I look at Avengers as this amazing ensemble piece,” she says. “All these wonderful actors, a fun character to play, and I shouldn’t have to do any rigorous extra training for her. How could I say ‘No’?”
She thinks that “every job informs the next job.” And stardom is still new enough to Olsen that every film is a “first”. Maybe she’s not checking off hash marks on her moviemaking life list, but In Secret was, in a way, prep work for taking on a comic book adaptation.
“I was in period costumes for In Secret. I’ll be in something just as elaborate for Avengers. And In Secret was the first time I’ve ever filmed on a sound stage. That experience, acting in a space where your world is not 360 degrees around you, that’s got to be good preparation for an effects movie. Right? I feel like every film is, whatever the rewards, a new experience and a stepping stone for me.”
In Secret is based on the 19th century Emile Zola novel, Therese Raquin, that was later a play. Olsen is at the centre of a French love triangle, unhappily married to a sickly cousin — a marriage arranged by her aunt — but in love and lust with a rogue, an artist and friend of her husband.
The French novelist Zola, who died in 1902, has never enjoyed the popularity or reputation of Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. Such works as Germinal have been filmed, in French, but in the English-speaking world he grows more obscure by the year.
“I read the script right around the time I was taking an academic theatre class at school (New York University), ‘Realism and Naturalism,’” Olsen says. “Our first assignment was to read the (1867) book and the play. Just a coincidence that I had studied the play, academically, and looked at its structure and how the story works. I am amazed we even got to study it. But that made me excited to try and do it, so the offer was a case of perfect timing.”
Therese, as the planned film was called, would be directed by Charlie Stratton, who had directed a play based on the novel. At one time, Kate Winslet was set to star. At another time, Gerard Butler was to be the hunky artist and Jessica Biel would be Therese, with Glenn Close as the cruel aunt who forces Therese to marry her son.
Olsen came on board, despite that tortured production history, with Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter pictures) as the cousin/husband, Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) as the tall, dark artist and Oscar winner Jessica Lange as the heartless aunt who becomes Therese’s mother-in-law.
“The fact that Kate Winslet was originally attached to the film, and that she ended up reading the book on tape, made me even more interested in it,” Olsen says. “If somebody as good as her wanted to do it — and I listened to an interview of her talking about why she wanted to make it — I had to make this film. I have such huge respect for her and her taste.” — By Roger Moore, MCT


 

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