Elizabeth Olsen lands on the March 2020 cover of ASOS Magazine. In the interview, the 22-year-old actress talks about Sundance, meeting Woody Allen, but also about her sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley, fashion and future plans. “It’s been a whole year of firsts of everything. It’s weird to look back on, but as it was all happening, it didn’t feel like I was being put under a microscope. But it’s cool, [Sundance] suddenly puts you in a certain category with other actors, who you have always thought, ‘Oh, I wish I could have done that part.’ That’s a whole new thing, I loved ‘An Education’, or even Maggie Gyllenhaal in ‘Secretary’. Those were movies that helped give an actor leeway into the world,” Elizabeth says about the Sundance experience.
The lovely young star says that people have a strange idea when it comes to her upbringing. “I did lead a very charmed life growing up, but I was aware of the things that were abnormal. The only time I flew first-class as a kid was when my sisters did these cruises called ‘Sail With The Stars’. They were the main event, so the company would fly us first-class. Other than that, never,” she told the magazine.
On her famous name, Elizabeth says that, “A lot of casting directors didn’t make the connection at first. I loved it when that would happen, because there was no baggage of any kind, whether it was good or bad. I have always had a complex about being really good at school and being a really hard worker when it came to acting classes. I always wanted straight As because I wanted to feel like,, ‘No, I’m intelligent on my own.’ I’ve always wanted to feel like everything I did, I worked hard for, because I had a complex about it. I don’t have that any more. I guess it changed with age.”
Elizabeth’s most surreal career moment so far, she recalls, was meeting her idol Woody Allen when she auditioned for him. “That was a real bucket list moment. I have a vintage ‘Annie Hall’ movie poster that an ex-boyfriend bought me in high school, the only movie poster I own. It was unbelievable. We talked and he asked me a couple of questions and I asked him one too, because I thought, ‘I’m meeting someone I’ve wanted to meet my entire life! I’m not going to be passive and nervous the whole time!’ Ellen Page got the role, but I’m still keeping my finger crossed for the future,” she admits.
On her sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley, Elizabeth confesses that she tries to see them as much as possible. “Between their schedules and mine, it’s not like we have tons of time to hang out. But when we do, it’s so much fun. Mary-Kate and Ashley have celebrated my birthday with me every year since I’ve been in New York, my last four birthdays, and it’s been so special. Or when you have a fight with a boyfriend or a friend, or whatever, they’re here,” the beautiful actress says.
Speaking about her fashion favorites, Elizabeth told ASOS that she loves Marni, Céline, Chanel and Isabel Marant. “When I was in high school, I would go to second-hand stores – not because I thought it was cool, but because you could get so much more for your dollar – and I would buy Marni. I thought it was masculine and quirky and funky. But I love Céline now too, my sisters introduced me to that label a couple of years ago. And Chanel. And Isabel Marant has become someone that I really like. I didn’t know all this stuff before this year, but I thought I should probably become more aware so I can have more of a say in what I wear,” she explains.
As for her future, the actress admits that, “I do get insecure some days. You know you have bad days? When everything sucks and it’s grey and too cold to walk outside, so you just think, well, I’m going to stay in and be upset all day. I’ll have those days, where I’ll fell everyone thinks I’m just a one-shot wonder. But then all you can do is choose roles that challenge you and come from the same place of interest and gut instinct that got you to where you were. So that, keeping things in perspective, and realising that hard work pays.”
Read Elizabeth’s full interview in the March 2020 issue of ASOS Magazine.
Photos courtesy of ASOS
