‘WandaVision’ Star Elizabeth Olsen Once Revealed She ‘Never Got Any Job’ Because of Her Famous Sisters — Here’s Why
Elizabeth Olsen’s rise to fame didn’t come on the backs of her famous sisters, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. With the Disney+ WandaVision series set for release in Dec. 2020, and five Marvel movies behind her, this Olsen sibling is taking over the world, one superhero project at a time. Here’s why Elizabeth once said she couldn’t credit her work to her sisters — and why she wouldn’t want to.
Elizabeth Olsen is the younger sister of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen rose to superstardom via the sitcom, Full House, starting in 1987. Younger sister, Elizabeth Chase “Lizzie” Olsen, was born two years later (1989). In total, Elizabeth has three siblings and two half-siblings.
While the twins worked on a sitcom set, Elizabeth took ballet and singing lessons as a child, according to IMDb. Her acting “career” began at 4 years old. She didn’t obtain her first real role until the 1994 TV movie, How the West Was Fun.
From there, Elizabeth had a cameo on Full House, opposite her sisters, but didn’t reach critical acclaim until 2011 with her breakout role in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene. It’s hard to believe now that the graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School in NYC studied abroad in Moscow, Russia, but almost quit acting altogether.
A media feeding frenzy stifled Elizabeth’s desire for the spotlight
When reports surfaced amid sister Mary Kate’s eating disorder, the media almost became too much. Elizabeth previously told The Guardian why the whole “fame” thing didn’t factor into any of the Olsens’ decision to act.
“I never thought about working on movies or television as something super-special that all these super-special people get to do. Neither did my sisters, and they were on camera from the age of a year old onwards,” she said.
“My parents had very little to do with my sisters’ job really, at least not after getting them that first job. They always did what they could to hook them up with the right people to handle things, like being child stars and managing assets and running production companies and so on, but they never pretended they could do it well themselves.”
Elizabeth looks to her sisters for guidance and advice
While Mary Kate and Ashley continued acting, Elizabeth remained focused on school, only dabbling in acting as a hobby. She said her sisters’ fame made her “more determined to study.”
“I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I also didn’t want to start working when I was under 18,” she said.
Now, she looks to the twins for guidance having been in the business longer, with more experience.
“Whenever I feel like I’m ready to package some project of my own, they’ll probably be the first people I’ll talk to for advice. Also, I love their fashion lines – I practically live at their clothes company when I’m here,” she said.
Elizabeth never relied on her sisters’ fame to get a job
Perhaps it was due to the pitfalls Mary Kate and Ashley had along the way that urged Elizabeth’s parents to intervene to some degree. By the age of 10, Elizabeth “retired” from acting to just be a kid.
“My parents made me write down a pros and cons list. And the cons just piled up. So I figured I’d keep acting as a hobby until I was older,” she said, adding she already felt the pressure alluding to nepotism.
“I decided that as long as I felt confident and worked hard for it, instead of having it handed to me, no one could take that away from me. I don’t have any insecurity about it. I never got any job because of my sisters. I could have pulled a few strings through them, but I never needed to.”
Playing Wanda Maximoff — aka Scarlett Witch — in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise may not have been a part of Elizabeth’s original plan. Now, she considers herself “the kind of theatre person who loves auditions” whether she lands the role or not. With that kind of attitude, only bigger and better things are on the way.
