Elizabeth Olsen has revealed that she improvised an emotional scene in Avengers: Infinity War with Paul Bettany.
Emmy-nominated Olsen, who plays Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, opened up about the process behind filming Vision’s (Bettany) death in the 2018 blockbuster.
The WandaVision actress revealed that the directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, encouraged the duo to improvise Vision’s death, as Wanda destroys the mind stone in his head and simultaneously fends off Thanos.
Olsen said it was a difficult scene to film as so much of it relies on CGI, but she felt relieved that she and Bettany managed to find the heart of the pivotal moment.
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She told Variety: "It’s very embarrassing shooting those kinds of things, because, like, the world depends on you doing it. And we did some improvising, which is hard to improvise those moments.
"But it also felt good, because at that point, Paul [Bettany] 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 the Russo's guiding us," she continued, "And then, once it was over, it was a huge amount of relief."
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Olsen explained that the embarrassment comes from acting such a painful and emotional scene, when her co-stars are painted purple with dots on as she pretends to do magic.
She added: "Because you’re like… 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."
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Brolin as Thanos was painted purple with a layer of glitter on top, Olsen said, and the Atlanta heat meant that he would be 'melting' glitter most of the time, which was a slight distraction when filming this key moment.
"It’s just silly. There’s a lot of silly stuff," Olsen finished. "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."
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Jess is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for over-analysing everyone’s favourite movies and TV shows. As an English graduate from the University of York with an MA in Creative Writing, Jess worked as a magazine editor before turning freelance. Since then, Jess has written for outlets such as GQ, The Guardian, Inverse, Huff Post, Stylist, and Insider. She specialises in the representation of mental health, grief, and women in film. She’s also a major Marvel nerd and is writing a YA fantasy novel. LinkedIn
