‘Wandavision’ Stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany Shared Some Interesting Behind-the-Scenes Facts
Marvel’s newest TV series Wandavision has become increasingly popular over the last few months. Streaming on Disney+, the series stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda and Paul Bettany as Vision.
Viewers have been speculating about what certain moments in the show mean, but the Wandavision cast and crew have remained careful not to reveal information.
Yet, while many of the cast members have managed to keep mum, Olsen and Bettany were willing to share some behind-the-scenes facts during a recent interview with Buzzfeed.
Paul Bettany thought he was going to get fired before he was cast in ‘Wandavision’
When Bettany first got called in to the Marvel offices to discuss Wandavision, his character, Vision, had just died in Avengers: Infinity War. He was certain the Marvel executives were going to fire him, but was pleasantly surprised.
“I looked at my wife and I went, ‘I think I’m getting the can,’” Bettany said. “I was very nervous as I go over there. I wanted everybody to feel comfortable and not feel icky about the whole thing, because I thought they were going to be gentlemen, and just look me in the face and say, ‘It’s over.’
Bettany decided to keep things professional and thank everyone for their time, but nobody understood what he was doing.
“So I went in, I said, ‘Look, there’s just absolutely no hard feelings. It’s been a great run. Thank you so much,'” Bettany said. “And they were like, ‘Are you quitting?’ And I went, ‘No, aren’t you firing me?’ And they went, ‘No, we were gonna pitch you a TV show.’ That’s how I found out.”
Elizabeth Olsen was scared to perform in front of a live studio audience
Although Olsen has been in her fair share of big-screen movies, she hasn’t acted in front of too many people since her earlier days at the Moscow Art Theatre. Because of this, she was a bit nervous to perform in front of the live studio audience that Wandavision is filmed in front of.
“The only thing that was getting me through is knowing that I trusted Matt Shakman, and if it was a failure, he would let me reshoot it the next day. But we did it.”
Nobody got sick from COVID-19 while filming ‘Wandavision’
Even though the world was still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marvel production crew still managed to shoot the entire season of Wandavision without anyone contracting the virus.
“In the middle of this thing that has sort of decimated production around the globe, we got through it without a single case,” Bettany said. “Everybody really stuck to the rules and really took it seriously. [It] really, genuinely made me feel so proud.”
Elizabeth Olsen loved watching the special effects team work her superpowers
Many members of the Wandavision special effects team are used to dealing with explosions, so handling Olsen’s superpowers was a big challenge for them. Olsen found it amusing to watch them fumble around on set.
“My favorite one was watching two of our special effects guys puppeting a dish rag trying to dry a cup,” she said. “It was so complicated and so frustrating for them. They figured it out. But it was really funny watching them trying to figure out how to bounce a dishrag to dry a cup.”
They both had a hard time keeping a straight face while filming
Olsen and Bettany have a natural chemistry on set that’s easy to see. Because of this, they spent a lot of time laughing while filming. In fact, it became a daily challenge for them to remain in character and not break out in giggles while on set.
“There is a moment, that I cannot right now formulate in my memory, that I just remember laughing every time we were looking at each other and feeling the pressure of, like, ‘You really have to suck it up right now,’” Olsen said.
