Disclaimer: I was invited by Disney motion pictures to attend a press event for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Disnenature’s Monkey Kingdom. While I was a guest of Disney, all opinions and experiences are my own. #AvengersEvent #AgentsofSHIELD #MonkeyKingdom
During the recent press event for Avengers: Age of Ultron, we were able to interview Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver) and Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch). As the new film additions to the Marvel Universe, we were very excited hear about their experiences filming, working with the special effects, and fitting into the already awesome Avengers cast.
A little backstory on the characters Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch:
Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are twins from a country call Sokovia, which is located in Eastern Europe. If you watched the end credits of Captain America: Winter Soldier, you got a glimpse of the two exercising their powers in Hydra holding cells. That story continues in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and since we were able to attend an advanced screening of the movie, we had lots of questions for these actors.
Q: With this being your first Marvel film, can you tell us about the audition process and where you were when you found out you had the role?
Olsen: “We actually didn’t have an audition process. We both met with Joss separately. We finished filming Godzilla and then we both got a phone call that was like ‘you guys got the parts’ and that was kind of it. It was really crazy and exciting, and Aaron and I were really excited that we got to work with each other again. More so because in Godzilla, if you’d seen it, we didn’t really get to work with each other as much.”
When asked what attracted each of them to the roles, Elizabeth mentioned being a Marvel fan, and that she even read the House of M series, which truly impressed this comic book fan!
“Well, I’m a fan of Marvel already — I didn’t know who (Scarlet Witch) was beforehand. We both asked for a lot of research on our characters, and they gave us every comic book page that both of our characters have ever been on basically and it was this huge stack. I think she’s one of the coolest characters in the entire universe of Marvel I think largely because of the House of M series because she’s this, she’s the most powerful person in the entire universe, X Men and Avengers combined.”
Elizabeth also mentioned that she thinks Scarlet Witch is really nuts too. Ha! She said it’s fun to play a character like that.
Aaron mentioned how Quicksilver needs the balance of his twin sister, Scarlet Witch:
“They’re twins and they’re very much ying and yang in the way their personalities are. He might be quick, you know, in speed so he’s kind of quick in temperament I think, you know, in a kind of way and hotheaded and impatient and all those things I wanted to kind of play around with and especially balancing against her kind of more thoughtful, slower, more emotional sort of nurturing side with him, so and always drawn really close together.”
Aaron went on to talk about how he and Elizabeth worked to develop their characters:
“So we kind of played around with everything that we could, visually see what we could read and that was kind of fun. And Marvel was really open to suggestions and ideas and wanted to do those characters justice so it felt very collaborative very early on.”
Later, Elizabeth was asked about her costume in the movie, and if what kind of elaborate costume she’s like to see Scarlet Witch wear in the future:
“It’ll definitely not be a leotard. That’s for sure.”
Too funny! As a big fan of the Kick Ass movies, I had to ask Aaron about the correlation between his role as Kick Ass and his role as Quicksilver:
Q: What was it like going from playing a vigilante with essentially no superpowers in Kickass to an Avenger with actual superpowers?
“It’s a lot more fun having powers for sure. Yeah, I mean it’s good fun. They’re both really different characters with different dynamics, but it’s a lot of fun having powers and doing these fight sequences. Just visually anyway it’s the most exciting for me to see all of your favorite superheroes all fighting together as a team, and they all have their different skill sets. It’s amazing to watch but also it’s amazing to do.”
Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were such a pleasure to interview. I can’t wait for you all to see them rock their roles as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver this Friday!
Did you miss my Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth interview post? Click the picture below:
