Exclusive Interview with Elizabeth Olsen & Aaron Taylor-Johnson From Avengers: Age of Ultron #AvengersEvent

Exclusive Interview: An Interview with Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) & Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver) From Avengers: Age of Ultron

Last week, I shared with you all the exclusive interview we had with Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth while we were in L.A for the #AvengersEvent press junket earlier this month. Today, I want to share with you the interview with the newest members of the Avengers, Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) & Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver).

Meet Quicksilver & the Scarlet Witch from Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron

Meet the twin brother and sister duo, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff a.k.a, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The duo is the newest addition to the Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and they will debut in Marvel’s Age of Ultron in theaters May 1. A little background: Quicksilver possesses the ability to move at superhuman speeds and Scarlet Witch has the abilities of telekinesis and hypnosis. Now onto the Q&A with Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) & Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver).

Question: You did a lot of running and obviously some of it’s special effects but did you have to really do a lot of running?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson answered: “Yeah. That was pretty much what I did all day long. You know, it was like if in doubt, run. Yeah, all the special effects is sped up. For example, we’d shoot the scene, if Lizzy was in the scene, I’d run up to her. We’d shoot that. We did the dialogue and then we’d have to do a plate afterwards where she’d step out and I’d do the run up and then they would speed that up. It’s like a plate shot. But yeah, even though you wouldn’t really know because it goes so quick. But yeah, all the running where there’s a blur it was me behind it.”

On their roles as Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver:

Question: So 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?

Elizabeth Olsen answered: “We, we actually didn’t have an audition process. It was we both met with Joss separately. You met with him before I did I think and we were about to Godzilla when we both met. I don’t remember when I met with him but I met with him at some point. You met with him before. We finished filming Godzilla and then we both that summer got a phone call that was like you guys got the parts and we’re like whoa, okay 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 we, if you’d seen it we didn’t really get to work with each other as much.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson answered: “Yeah, I mean ‘cause stepping onto the set seemed kind of, you know, it was such a big ensemble. It felt kind of daunting, you know, to step on with Lizzy who we already had that kind of work relationship which made it feel a lot more comfortable.”

Question: What attracted you most to the roles?

Elizabeth Olsen answered: “Well, I’m a fan of Marvel already and then Scarlet Witch, I didn’t know who she was before hand and then Joss was telling me about her and then we both asked for a lot of research on our characters and they gave us every, every comic book page that both of our characters have ever been on basically and it was this huge stack. And 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 the most powerful person in the entire universe, X Men and Avengers combined.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson answered: “There’s like a lot to play with.”

Elizabeth Olsen added: “It’s a lot to play with because it’s a lot of psychological stuff to play with instead of just it being physical.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson added: “I guess, you know, I was really excited about, obviously they have really cool super powers but I wanted to explore who the character was behind Quick Silver and Pietro was kind of our main goal and Wanda as well to kind of bring it back to the origins and it was based in [SOUNDS LIKE: Scuvia] which is someplace in like Eastern Europe to we wanted to embrace that kind of accent and I really wanted to have this same kind of look from the comic books and yeah just kind of, king of together as well.

Quicksilver, needed Scarlet Witch because, they balance off each other. They’re twins and they’re very much ying and yang in the way their personalities are. He might be quick in speed and kind of quick in temperament, in a kind of way and hotheaded and impatient. 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 connected.

It kind of gave us a sense of insecurity when they went with each other or kind of vulnerability. All they had was each other. 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 really opened to suggestions and ideas and wanted to do those characters justice so it felt very collaborative very early on.”

Question: What was the most emotionally challenging scene for you to shoot?

Elizabeth Olsen answered: “The one that was the hardest one for me was when Scarlet Witch, can see what’s gonna happen if Ultron has control over the vision because a lot of times my character just had to respond to something that is none existent, most of the time ‘cause it just popped into her head and like no one else felt it but I did. I have to have this humongous reaction that is coming from nothing and so that always just kind of feels stupid until you really just go for it. There are other couple of moments where I had to be, I just got this new information and that’s kind of feels funny.”

On their costumes:

Question: I have a question about your costume following up because we saw you put on the red jacket. Will you have more elaborate costume? If you don’t know yet do you have something in mind that you’d like to see yourself wearing?

Elizabeth Olsen answered: “We create a more elaborate costume for the very last moment of the film whether or not that’s gonna be continued, I don’t know.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson answered: “It’s an implication and of a potential where to go with it. I think, you know, they create that.”

Elizabeth Olsen added: “It’ll definitely not be a leotard [Chuckles]. That’s for sure.”

Question: Since all of your powers are special effects how was it for you to act out those parts where you’re just kind of staring?

Elizabeth Olsen answered: “Well, you know, it’s actually fun because a lot of people have stunt doubles and my stuff is kind of a dance, so I can’t have a stunt double come in and do that. I was always doing everything, I even had to do like a triple flip back kick situation but I always got to be in control over my characters body movements which was cool and it was fun because there’s no blueprint to how Scarlet Witch moves ‘cause you just see these awesome finger, hand gestures and these circular red things. I worked with a movement coach and she and I watched Joss’s version of Scarlet Witch and that was really enjoyable to watch ‘cause he would do the motions and we would interpret it into our own thing but it was really fun. It was really fun to work with the dancer on something like that and it adds a different element to the fighting, a different visual element to the fighting. And it also felt, you know, a little funny because you’re like I’m not making contact with anything, like literally zero contact. So, you just kind of trust that you’re gonna put a robot where my eyes or something, you know. Yeah. There’s a lot of trust that goes in when you have special effects that I wasn’t used to and then after seeing the movie I was like aha, now I’m comfortable.”

 

On having actual powers:

Question: What was it like going form playing a vigilante with essentially real superpowers in Kickass to an Avenger with actual superpowers?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson answered: “It’s a lot more fun having powers for sure. Yeah, 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 and they also collide into set with each other. It’s amazing to watch but also it’s amazing to do. The final fight sequence was this epic two or three week long shoot where they found a site that they were gonna bulldozer anyway with these towers and they pretty much did exactly that for them, blew up buildings and smashed up cars and, and the stunts that are involved, they’re gymnasts, it’s just the most incredible thing to be around and you just live off of that high. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, so, you know.”

On the Avengers:

Question: You said that when you came onto the set with you guys working together before that made it easy but what was it like coming out to the set with the established?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson answered: “Yeah, that was kind of the initial thing, this is like their fourth or fifth movie playing these characters. They’re pretty comfortable in that kind of situation and with each other and just understand the whole kind of the mechanics of it ‘cause, you know, this movie is such a machine. It just keeps going and going and you’re a small piece to the rubric’s cube and they said that you just have to trust with these guys but you’ve seen the quality of movies they’ve done before so you can have trust but it’s just you don’t quite understand.

But, yeah it feels slightly daunting but it sort of very quickly becomes like a very kind of family environment. They’ve set up over the years and are very comfortable with one another. You’ll be meeting them all, they are relaxed and chill and the way they are here is the way they were on set. It’s just a lot of fun and once you have a laugh with that then you know it’s kind of cool and you can kind of think about what you’re doing rather than kind of observing like wow, this is pretty cool and overwhelming and surreal. It’s kind of crazy but yeah, it was good.

With Lizzy it’s just like our characters are kind of combined so I can kind of rely on her and vice versa I think so. In those sort of situations it’s just like we, we kind of feel slightly uncomfortable around the Avengers anyway, you know, so early on that we’re kind of outsiders anyway. So I think it also kind of played within it, you know, what I mean?”

What a fun interview we had with Elizabeth Olsen & Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Aaron Taylor-Johnson said it best at the end of our interview when they were asked to take a group pic with all of us, “I love it, the graduating class of 2015!”. Thanks to both Elizabeth & Aaron for the time they took from their busy schedules to sit with us. For you all, keep reading we have more to come this week, plus on Friday, Avengers: Age of Ultron movie review.

Marvel’s AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON will be in theaters May 1, 2015. Starting Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders with James Spader and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. For more information please visit the Avengers Facebook page.

Avengers: Age of Ultron – Trailer #3

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE:

Marvel Studios presents “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.

Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963. Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham, Patricia Whitcher, Stan Lee and Jon Favreau serve as executive producers. Get set for an action-packed thrill ride when The Avengers return in Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” on May 1, 2015.

Disclosure: I was provided with an all expense paid trip to L.A to facilitate the review of AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, no additional compensation was received.