Elizabeth Olsen stands at a crossroads in her career, caught between blockbuster franchise commitments and her desire for meaningful artistic work. The 36-year-old actress, who recently attended a screening for her new romantic comedy Eternity in Los Angeles on November 5, finds herself navigating a film industry that has dramatically changed from the era that produced iconic female-led films.
The Disappearing Mid-Budget Film
Classic movies like Annie Hall, Norma Rae, 9 to 5, The Way We Were, Thelma and Louise, Working Girl, and Broadcast News once provided powerful platforms for actresses to connect with audiences through relatable stories about women's lives. These films transformed performers like Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Melanie Griffith, and Holly Hunter into household names by reflecting women's struggles and aspirations back at them.
Today, these mid-budget productions have largely vanished from cinemas, forcing contemporary actresses to seek meaningful roles through streaming series. However, for every successful project like Big Little Lies, numerous others fail to resonate with audiences, including The Girlfriend starring Robin Wright, Sirens with Julianne Moore, and Nine Perfect Strangers featuring Nicole Kidman.
Marvel's Double-Edged Sword
Olsen's situation illustrates a broader industry pattern. Even established stars like Julia Roberts struggle to attract audiences to theaters, as demonstrated by the limited theatrical performance of After the Hunt before its move to Prime Video. This raises questions about Olsen's chances with her new film Eternity, which arrives in theaters on November 26.
Since her breakthrough performance in Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011, critics and fans have eagerly awaited more substantial roles that would showcase Olsen's considerable talent. She has actively pursued challenging projects, working with directors like Spike Lee on Oldboy and Azazel Jacobs on His Three Daughters, while also leading limited series such as Sorry for Your Loss and Love & Death.
However, her deeper artistic ambitions were largely sidelined when she embraced the role of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the franchise attracts top acting talent from Olsen's generation, it rarely utilizes the full range of their abilities, creating cultural connections that lack profound artistic depth.
Creative Frustrations and Future Hopes
During an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Olsen expressed her career frustrations. Dressed in a style reminiscent of Mary Tyler Moore with straight hair featuring bangs, a long striped button-down shirt, jeans, and loafers, the actress who introduced herself as Lizzie shared her artistic aspirations.
"I would love to feel that directors and producers know me, know what I want and can do – but I don't think that's so," she confessed. "I want to make art, with great artists, that holds up a mirror to something that is happening in our world, and challenge people with it."
Olsen revealed she has "several projects in development with great filmmakers" that remain on hold due to insufficient budgets. "These directors know how to make a movie for nothing, but they don't want to," she explained. "They know what that will look like."
The actress described feeling "cynical and frustrated" that her career coincides with an industry in flux, where fundamental questions about independent cinema's future and financial viability remain unanswered.
Eternity: A Sincere Rom-Com
In the meantime, Olsen channeled her energies into Eternity, written by Pat Cunnane (son of U.S. congresswoman Madeleine Dean) and directed by David Freyne. The screenplay earned recognition on the 2022 Black List of promising unproduced scripts, and the film was shot in Vancouver.
The story follows Joan (Olsen), who dies in her 80s only to discover an afterlife filled with as many hucksters as earthly existence, though with the benefit of appearing 30 years old. She faces a critical one-week decision: choose between spending eternity with her longtime husband Larry (Miles Teller), whom she knows completely, or her first love Luke (Callum Turner), who died young in World War II and always left her wanting more.
"I never read a rom-com that I wanted to do until this," Olsen admitted. "It's sincere. It's sweet without saccharine, and that's hard to find." She found Larry's "neurotic romance" reminiscent of her own husband, musician Robbie Arnett of the band Milo Greene, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday.
For her portrayal of Joan, Olsen developed a "jokey-dame voice" inspired by watching Anne Meara and borrowed a "hummingbird quality" from young Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment and Irma la Douce.
Navigating Different Realities
Olsen contrasted the acting challenges between Marvel films and projects like Eternity. "To succeed in the Marvel Universe, you have to summon the ability to feel stupid," she revealed. "I have to do crazy stuff – move my fingers as if fire is coming out of them. It's adorable when you see a girl or boy doing it on a playground, but as a grown woman, it's hard."
She applies a similar commitment to belief when approaching Eternity's premise, embracing the absurd circumstances as real within the film's world.
Olsen's situation reflects a broader trend among accomplished actresses, including Claire Danes in The Beast in Me, Emma Thompson in Down Cemetery Road, and Glenn Close and Naomi Watts in All's Fair – all making the most of available opportunities in a transformed industry.
As if to underscore this point, after interviewing Olsen, her Eternity co-star John Early (who plays an afterlife coordinator) offered a telling assessment at the hotel elevator: "Elizabeth Olsen is the Holly Hunter of our time." The lingering question remains whether the current film industry will allow her to fulfill that potential.
