The Heartbreaking Doctor Strange 2 Scene That Elizabeth Olsen Didn't Enjoy Filming
Contains spoilers for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"
Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch has entered a bit of a dark phase in her MCU character arc. After losing Vision (Paul Bettany) to the Infinity War-capping struggle against Thanos and the grueling meditation on grief that was "WandaVision," she's achieved full villain status in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." In some sense, this iteration is a return to form for the Sokovian witch. As longtime fans will surely remember, she began her MCU journey as a dangerous Hydra experiment in "Avengers: Age of Ultron." That version of Wanda had completed a full redemption arc by the time "Infinity War" rolled around, but after the collapse of her idyllic Hex around Westview, New Jersey, she's arguably more dangerous than ever before. So it's perhaps unsurprising that the actress behind Scarlet Witch had trouble filming some of her darker scenes in horror maestro Sam Raimi's "Doctor Strange" sequel.
Sometimes in the MCU, scenes can be difficult or awkward to film because an actor is trying to shoot an arrow after getting both arms broken, confronting existential fears of death and loss, or simply battling against adverse weather conditions. For Elizabeth Olsen on the set of "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness," the issue was organic to the script, and things got the darkest when she was working with two of her youngest costars.
It's the family reunion (of sorts) between Wanda and her Earth 838 children
As the old adage goes, every villain thinks they're the hero of their own story. The same is true for Wanda as she goes down her dark path in the film. With her Scarlet Witch powers waxing, she becomes obsessed with seeing her family again. But once she crosses over into the 838 reality, reunites with them, and gets pelted in the face for her trouble, she starts screaming in angry mom voice at her boys.
According to a recent interview with Variety, Olsen admits that while filming, she got smacked in the face really hard with a prop that the child actors opposite her in the scene were throwing. It wasn't planned, but the ensuing reaction that injury drew out of Olsen made the scene all the more intense. "One of the people that I love — the little people that I love — they were throwing things at me in the scene, and accidentally smacked my face really hard," Olsen recounted. "And that was the best reaction. And I felt so bad that I used it as the actor and let it inform how I responded to these people that I love. Because they were terrified after. It really was something I did not enjoy at all, but I knew it'd be good for the scene."
Sounds like a scarring experience for everyone involved, but boy did it make for an effective scene.
Overall, Elizabeth Olsen had a difficult time justifying Wanda's heel turn
For any actor, playing a character like Wanda Maximoff is a challenge because of all the twists and turns in her story. Before "Doctor Strange 2," Olsen had already taken Wanda through one entire redemption arc. As Olsen put it, "It's been really a wild couple years with her."
Coming on the heels of "WandaVision," Wanda is back in full-blown villain mode. For Olsen, some of Wanda's actions in "Doctor Strange 2" are disturbing, and she had a difficult time reconciling them with the character she thought she knew.
In the film, Wanda is determined to create a universe where her two boys exist, but this comes at the cost of having to destroy America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a teenage girl with the ability to travel through the multiverses. Not only is Wanda willing to do that, but when Doctor Strange and his fellow wizards try to stop her, things get violent. Wanda wipes out several of Doctor Strange's fellow wizards, plus an entire superhero team called the Illuminati, which includes alternate Earth-versions of Dr. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell).
Olsen was troubled when she found out her character was willing to eliminate anyone who got in her way. In order to deliver her performance, she had to get into the right mindset.
"I just had to buckle down and think, 'All these people are in her way, and she's warned Doctor Strange not to get in her way,'" Olsen explained. "And he did. He didn't listen. And so I just had to go from that point of view."
Wanda's heel turn might be familiar to comics readers, but it's still unsettling–especially for Olsen.