Elizabeth Olsen: Wanda star explains why she finds it ‘embarrassing’ making Marvel movies

Elizabeth Olsen has admitted that she finds it “embarrassing” filming Marvel movies.

The actor has played Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in six Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, as well as the TV series WandaVision.

Her most recent appearance as the character came with the villainous turn in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which was released in May 2022.

But, despite now being a part of the Marvel furniture, the 33-year-old still finds the filming experience “very silly”.

“It’s very embarrassing shooting those kinds of things, because, like, the world depends on you doing it,” she told Variety, specifically referring to Vision’s death scene in 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War.

Olsen said she felt more “comfortable” as she had built up a short-hand with actor Paul Bettany, explaining: “At that point, Paul and I really had each other’s back.

“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.”

The actor said she had a “huge amount of relief” completing the scene, stating: “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.”

Elaborating on why she finds moments like this “embarrassing” to film, Olsen said it was to do with her character having to pretend there are powers shooting out of her hands.

“Ugh, I’m doing this in public,” she said. “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.

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

Olsen has repeatedly praised the crew behind the films for making the finished product look so believable on screen; earlier this year, the actor hit out at those who “throw Marvel under the bus” during an interview with The Independent.

The actor and producer also revealed that she would be up for filming another series similar to WandaVision.