Elizabeth Olsen Advises Actors Considering a Marvel Role Not to Sign Multi-Movie Deals
During a May 25 guest spot on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast, the ‘Avengers’ star told host Josh Horowitz about her experience on the topic
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Elizabeth Olsen is advising actors against signing multiple-movie deals within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
During a guest spot on the Happy Sad Confused podcast Thursday to promote her new limited series Love & Death, the Avengers star spoke from her own experience on the topic.
“Just give them one — that’s what I say,” Olsen, 34, told host Josh Horowitz of how the franchise should handle future Marvel Studios contenders.
Expanding her point on Thursday, Olsen shared, “Let’s say you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this was the most fun I’ve ever had, and I love this character so much I want to do it again,’ you now have more creative control for the next one.”
“Don’t tell [David] Galluzzi that,” she quipped with a laugh of Marvel’s “business affairs” executive
Olsen, who is the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, has been vocal in the past about getting locked into a complicated contract, which prevented her from accepting other opportunities.
Last June, during an appearance on The Tonight Show, she revealed to Jimmy Fallon that she’d be down to reprise her role as Wanda Maximoff in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
“I don’t know [if I’m coming back]. I should come back. But I don’t know. I want fans to be so aggressive and terrify [Marvel] into doing it or something,” she joked. “I mean, that’s not a good way to do anything, actually, I really take that back. No one needs to use force.”
When asked if she’d be returning to the MCU, she said, “I hope so. They don’t tell me anything about my fate,” adding later, “I would love to do more.”
Elizabeth Olsen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). COURTESY MARVEL STUDIOS
While Olsen was open to returning to the MCU, on the other hand, she noted last May that her Marvel contract has impacted her ability to perform in other films. (A rep for Marvel did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time.)
“It took me away from the physical ability to do certain jobs that I thought were more aligned with the things I enjoyed as an audience member,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “And this is me being the most honest.”
Olsen said she was forced to turn down a starring role in the Yorgos Lanthimos dark comedy The Lobster due to her commitment to Marvel.
“I started to feel frustrated,” she told the Times. “I had this job security but I was losing these pieces that I felt were more part of my being. And the further I got away from that, the less I became considered for it.”
Speaking of the studio’s more favorable elements compared to “horrible” stories told from other studios, she said, “The thing with Marvel is they never tell you to get into shape. They just hire the people and let them figure out the way to express the character. They will set you up with a trainer if you want, but that’s it.”