‘WandaVision’ Interviews With Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn And Teyonah Parris
Marvel's “WandaVision” stars Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff), Paul Bettany (Vision), Kathryn Hahn (Agnes), and Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau) discuss their Disney+ TV series in this interview with CinemaBlend Managing Editor Sean O’Connell. Olsen and Bettany discuss wearing their characters' comic book-accurate costumes and their comedic chemistry, the cast talks about going to 'sitcom boot camp' and more.
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00:00♪♪
00:05Wanda.
00:07Wanda.
00:08Can you read me?
00:11♪ WandaVision! ♪
00:14Oh, this is gonna be a gas!
00:16♪ WandaVision! ♪
00:19We see something in the trailer
00:20that wasn't in the first three episodes,
00:21and it's you in the comic-accurate
00:23Scarlet Witch costume.
00:24And I'm curious what it was like
00:25putting that on for the first time
00:26and if you realize how important it is
00:28for geeks like us to just see it for a moment.
00:32Well, I loved it.
00:33I loved it.
00:35And you'll see more than moments of it.
00:38And I just thought it was such a joy
00:42to put the thing on, to put the huge headband on
00:46and the leotard and the pink tights,
00:48and it was the whole thing was just hilarious.
00:53So, yeah, I'm right there with you.
00:55I loved that costume so much
00:57because it didn't have to work too hard for laughs.
01:02Yeah.
01:04So, I got to see the first three episodes,
01:07and to me, the classic sitcom miscommunications
01:11were so incredibly funny.
01:13When did you and Paul realize
01:14how strong your comedic chemistry was together?
01:17Because it's not something that was needed in the MCU.
01:21I don't know.
01:22I think he and I, we constantly just kind of felt
01:25like we were swinging for the fences because we could
01:27with being in these sitcoms,
01:30and he just really brought his Dick Van Dyke,
01:33his inner Dick Van Dyke, and he was just fantastic.
01:36Yeah, I don't know.
01:37I guess it was when we shot episode one,
01:39and we did it in front of a live studio audience,
01:42and people seemed to really enjoy it,
01:45and I was terrified, and so was Lizzie.
01:49And so, actually, maybe Katherine Hahn wasn't terrified,
01:54but I certainly was,
01:56and it was just such an awesome experience.
02:01Hiya, kids.
02:03Auntie Agnes is here,
02:04and I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve.
02:08Let's just take it from the top.
02:11Humor in the different decades,
02:15it doesn't work from one to the next.
02:17Like, what's funny in the 50s is not funny in the 60s,
02:20you know, and can you just talk about
02:23how you guys approached that?
02:25I mean, that's a really great question, Sean.
02:28Like, we did a sitcom boot camp, which was so fun.
02:31I'm sure they've talked about it
02:32or someone has talked to you about it.
02:33Well, first, we went through this whole sitcom boot camp
02:36just to really understand the tone
02:38and the structure for each different decade.
02:42We've got to watch examples of every decade
02:47or every, you know, every sitcom
02:50that we were gonna be shooting from that decade,
02:53and so that was very helpful.
02:54In terms of the jokes,
02:55like, Jack Schafer wrote scripts that were very,
02:59especially, like, I felt it in the 50s and 60s,
03:02but in all of them, that were so,
03:06they weren't satirizing or parodying that time period,
03:10parodying, is that it, but that time period,
03:13but really were specific and true.
03:16Like, it was important for us to get inside of the decade
03:20rather than make fun of it from the outside,
03:23if that makes sense.
03:24Our head writer, Jack Schafer,
03:26just did such a beautiful job
03:28being so particular and specific for each decade
03:32and making sure we captured that,
03:35the spirit of each decade.
03:39So that, definitely huge shout out to Jack and her team
03:43and making that, those switches.
03:45It's not very easy.
03:46And then as, for us as the actors, you know,
03:48sometimes you have laugh tracks and sometimes you don't,
03:52and how does the comedy and the pausing
03:54and all of that work?
03:55It was definitely a learning situation.
03:59Wanda, what's up?
04:01Who are you?
04:03I don't know.
04:05I want to drill down a little bit even further, too,
04:06is just in terms of the energy that you have to bring.
04:09Your energy in the character is so different
04:11from the 60s to the 70s,
04:14and it's so totally different than what I would assume
04:16that you're taught of how to act now, you know?
04:20It was really interesting because a lot of times,
04:22Matt, our director, would be like,
04:24well, you know, you can do more, let's do more.
04:26And we're like, ooh,
04:28we really feel like we're doing too much here, Matt.
04:31And he's like, I promise you, you're not.
04:33And then once you watch it,
04:34you're like, wow, it really worked.
04:38Thanks, Matt.
04:38You know, glad we trusted you.
04:40But it's just, it really is a matter of trust
04:44because a lot of it does feel quite antithetical
04:47to how we do movies, television these days.
04:52That was really important to us,
04:54and it is important to the show as well.
04:56What comedy is or what humor is for each decade,
05:01it evolves and changes.
05:02I mean, the 80s become ridiculously sincere
05:06with all of its, you know,
05:09all these moments to these teaching moments
05:12and, you know, the sad music.
05:14And it's like so strange what we watched
05:17in the 80s and the 90s.
05:18And then we get into kind of the aughts
05:20and the 2000s and 10s.
05:23And it's so cynical.
05:26Everything becomes way cynical.
05:28So it's interesting to use that type of humor
05:33and help tell our story.
05:34The jokes were really, like you were pointing out,
05:37like really true to that period.
05:39And so we did it in front of a live studio audience.
05:42We shot it like the 50s was in front of a live audience.
05:45We had no idea if those jokes were gonna land in any way
05:47because they were so from the era.
05:51And it's surprising how much they did.
05:54It was very hard for me, though,
05:55who likes to improvise to not.
05:57And it was very hard for me who,
06:00to run that kind of a tight ship.
06:03Like it is just dip.
06:04It's so much about literally just like timing
06:08and rehearsing your moves.
06:09And like, I mean, I like, you know,
06:11I'm used to a little bit more like anarchic comedy.
06:13And so it was really fun to just to
06:18have to be so precision,
06:20which is like, I think what so many of those were,
06:23it seems like.
06:24It also feels like a style and an energy and a pacing
06:28that you're just not trained to do now, you know?
06:31Right, right, right.
06:32But yet you can see it when it's too much.
06:34Like it's funny, like, you know,
06:36yet there's such an ease.
06:37Like I watch, you know,
06:38watching those old Dick Van Dyke ones,
06:40you're like, and Donna Reed,
06:43like they're so relaxed
06:46and they have such an ease to them
06:48and their chemistry is so true.
06:52And so we took a lot like,
06:55from the Dick Van Dyke show.
06:57I mean, and I think it comes through
06:58with just Lizzie and Paul's chemistry,
07:00which is just like so off the charts
07:01and like just so real.
07:03But there is such an ease.
07:07It's so relaxed.
07:09Even though like, you know,
07:10that they've like worked those beats
07:12and those bits a bazillion times.
07:14They just like, they're just tossed away
07:16and there's just something so punk about it
07:18that I was really into doing.
07:21Am I dead?
07:21No.
07:23Why would you think that?
07:24Because you are.
07:27I'm very curious if you knew about the show,
07:30that you guys would be doing the show
07:32before you filmed Vision's death scene
07:35from Infinity War.
07:36No.
07:37So when you found out then
07:38that you were gonna be able to return
07:40to the character in that format,
07:41what did that feel like?
07:43It felt like a relief.
07:44I was, you know, I got a call from the boss.
07:47My contract was up
07:48and I got a call from the boss
07:49to come and see him in the office.
07:51And so, you know, usually what that means, right?
07:54And so I looked at my wife and I said,
07:57well, I think that's it.
07:59I'm getting a can.
08:01And so I showed up
08:02and I didn't want anybody to feel uncomfortable.
08:04So I kind of went in and I was like,
08:06look, guys, it's been a great run.
08:08Thank you so much.
08:11I've loved it.
08:11And they were like, are you quitting?
08:13And I went, aren't you firing me?
08:15And they went, no.
08:16And I went, oh, great.
08:19And they went, we're gonna pitch you a new TV show.
08:21And I went, oh, okay.
08:23In comic book lore, you know,
08:25characters come back in all different crazy shapes
08:27and sizes.
08:28So when you filmed his death,
08:29did you assume that was it
08:31or you just figured, oh, they'll figure out some way?
08:33You know, I was sort of hoping
08:36that there'd be some sort of way to reanimate me,
08:39but that was not on the cards.
08:43And then, you know,
08:50and Kevin is, Kevin's right.
08:52Kevin is right.
08:54Kevin is nearly always right.
08:57And he said, you know,
08:59it's gonna be more powerful
09:03if we hold this back.
09:08And he was right.
09:10Kevin is right is a tattoo I feel like I need to get.
09:13Kevin is right.
09:14We are an unusual couple, you know.
09:16Oh, I don't think that was ever in question.
09:18So now that you've experienced both long-form television
09:22and doing the movies,
09:24if you had to choose how you would want to continue
09:26telling Wanda's stories, which one do you prefer?
09:29I love the flexibility of both.
09:32I mean, I think there's something
09:34that's really tangible about going back to playing a film
09:38and you have this, you know, constraint
09:41and you have this time
09:43and the economy of time
09:46and the economy of moments in film
09:49means something different to me now.
09:51Like with Wanda, just, you know,
09:53going to a film project after doing WandaVision,
09:58you know, you work so hard for all these moments,
10:00but you're moving so quickly and so fast
10:02and there's so much to get through
10:04that there's something really beautiful
10:05about the economy of the film.
10:08And so I'm loving both
10:10because I also thought the show was just
10:12always meant to happen
10:13and it was just the most fun I've had on a project.
10:17Are you here to help us?
10:23Take me back, Wanda
10:26Hold on to me
10:30What is Nia DaCosta going to bring to the MCU?
10:33All of her wonderfulness.
10:34I'm really excited for her.
10:36Yeah!
10:38We got to work together on Candyman,
10:40so to have another turn
10:42to collaborate and work with one another,
10:45I'm really excited.
10:47She's dope.
10:48Gotta see Candyman.
10:50Gotta see it.
10:50All of us.
10:52Come on.