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- [00:00]
Audrey Evans
This message comes from Blue Harbor Entertainment with Audrey's Children, the untold true story of Dr. Audrey Evans, whose fight for change redefined medicine and impacted the lives of millions. Starring Natalie Dormer. Now playing only in theaters.
- [00:16]
Rachel Martin
Hey, everyone, just a heads up, there's a little bit of spicy language in this episode. What is something you still feel you need to prove to the people you meet?
- [00:26]
Elizabeth Olsen
I think my taste. I think I haven't always successfully made choices in my work that are aligned with my personal taste, and that is something I feel like I'm still trying to prove.
- [00:44]
Rachel Martin
I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard, the game where cards control the conversation. Each week, my guest answers questions about their life, questions pulled from a deck of cards. They're allowed to skip one question and to flip one question back on me. My guest this week is Elizabeth Olsen.
- [01:04]
Elizabeth Olsen
There are definitely things that I could have learned from, but I needed to make the mistakes myself.
- [01:12]
Rachel Martin
Being a supervillain is exhausting. I mean, I only imagine that's the case. You spend a lot of energy thinking about how to mess with your enemies. Using your actual superpowers is totally draining. And once you're in that super villain box, it can be hard to escape. Unless you are Elizabeth Olsen. She first showed up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe about a decade ago as Wanda maximoff. And by 2021, she was flying around wreaking havoc as the scarlet witch in WandaVision. And while Olsen hasn't closed the door on that character, we have definitely seen her talent unfold in some totally different directions over the last few years. I, for one, am sort of obsessed with her performance in the Netflix show Love and death from 2023. She plays a sweet and loving housewife who brutally murders her husband's lover. And when I watched how Elizabeth Olsen held all the contradictions of that character, at the same time, I knew I was going to be seeing a lot more of her. Her newest film is called the Assessment. And in it, Elizabeth plays a woman in the not so distant future living in some kind of protected society because the Earth has been destroyed, and she's got to pass this nightmare of a test in order to be granted the chance to have a baby. It is my pleasure to welcome Elizabeth Olsen to Wildcard.
- [02:28]
Elizabeth Olsen
That was very nice to listen to. Thank you.
- [02:30]
Rachel Martin
You're welcome.
- [02:31]
Elizabeth Olsen
I'm happy to be here.
- [02:32]
Rachel Martin
I'm so happy to get to talk to you. My kids are thrilled. I mean, you're Scarlet Witch to them. They're very excited. So we're gonna talk about the Assessment in a few minutes, but we're just gonna get right to this game.
- [02:45]
Elizabeth Olsen
Okay.
- [02:45]
Rachel Martin
You ready?
- [02:46]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [02:47]
Rachel Martin
Okay.
- [02:47]
Elizabeth Olsen
I think so. Yeah.
- [02:49]
Rachel Martin
It'll be fun, I promise. Okay, first three cards. One, two or three.
- [02:56]
Elizabeth Olsen
I'll do the one in the middle. Two.
- [02:58]
Rachel Martin
Two. What do you admire about your teenage self?
- [03:05]
Elizabeth Olsen
Hmm. I think those years were huge building blocks for, I think, two things that are really important to me in my life. My discipline and my love of learning. And I think in elementary school, I got good enough grades, but it wasn't because I was super invested. And I think in junior high, in high school, I became kind of obsessed with my teachers, like, in a good way.
- [03:45]
Rachel Martin
Like, you wanted to be them, you were into them.
- [03:47]
Elizabeth Olsen
I wanted to make them feel validated by caring about what they were teaching. And I'm such a people pleaser, but it also such a people pleaser, but it was really beneficial for me because I really fell in love with academics, and I learned to love reading and writing essays. And the curiosity that I think I kind of move through with the world now was really foundational, I think, investing in academics at that time. And then the discipline was, you know, is somehow related to that and a part of it. But I was very disciplined with. I played volleyball, and I took that very seriously, and I took dance very seriously and my theater very seriously, which eventually you have to choose kind of a path. And I think that path I chose is clear. Clear that I am. I'm not a professional volleyball player. So I think I appreciate that a lot because I think it's been very informative.
- [05:00]
Rachel Martin
Yeah.
- [05:00]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [05:02]
Rachel Martin
Okay. Three more cards. One, two or three?
- [05:05]
Elizabeth Olsen
Two.
- [05:08]
Rachel Martin
What's something someone told you that changed your trajectory?
- [05:15]
Elizabeth Olsen
Flip.
- [05:16]
Rachel Martin
Flip.
- [05:17]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [05:18]
Rachel Martin
Well, I have a very. Some of these I have no answers to. I have a specific answer to this one. I was working as a freelancer in Afghanistan. This is after 9, 11. And then my mom got sick. She got cancer. And I felt like I needed to come back. And I got a job at the NPR member station in San Francisco. And on my first day, I'm getting a tour, and the guy who was gonna be the engineer behind the glass, pressing the buttons to make the mics work and things, he was giving me the tour. And as he introduced me to the newsroom, he's like, this is where you shall sit, and I'll be behind the glass, and we'll do this for decades. And I was like, ooh, will we? And it triggered, like, this whole existential crisis. I was like, I don't really want to be doing this and I'm not close enough to my mom. And anyway, I quit six months later. You did and I did. And then I moved to Berlin, which was still very far away, but it was a lot safer than being in Iraq or Afghanistan at the time. And then I went back and forth and my mom came to visit me anyway. There are very few examples of something so concrete, you know, but that really, I still think about that. I was like, yeah, I don't know. Would I have made such a dramatic shift? Maybe I would have tried to make it work had he not said that. But there was something about the infiniteness of it. I was like, oh, I'm not ready. I'm not ready to be planted in a place for this long. And it feels.
- [06:45]
Elizabeth Olsen
And so did. Did Berlin then turn into other countries that you worked in or did you come back to the States from Berlin?
- [06:53]
Rachel Martin
I sort of went back and forth to Iraq was popping off at the time, so I was sort of bouncing around and there was a lot going on in Europe at the time too, so.
- [07:03]
Elizabeth Olsen
Oh, how amazing and scary. It sounds scary and terrifying to me. But it was a little.
- [07:09]
Rachel Martin
It was, you know, but I was young and felt invincible at the time.
- [07:13]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [07:15]
Rachel Martin
Okay, but you still have to answer this question. So the question is, what did someone tell you that changed your trajectory?
- [07:25]
Elizabeth Olsen
What did someone say that changed my trajectory? The reason why I'm having a hard time with this is because I didn't have any mentors growing up and I felt like I was very self motivated and I didn't listen to a lot of people's opinions within my family and I just kind of kept doing what I wanted to do.
- [07:54]
Rachel Martin
Did your parents try to nudge you away from.
- [07:58]
Elizabeth Olsen
No.
- [07:59]
Rachel Martin
I mean, we have to just acknowledge your two older sisters.
- [08:01]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yes.
- [08:02]
Rachel Martin
Were in Full House, Mary Kate and Ashley. And so there was. It's not like it was totally foreign.
- [08:07]
Elizabeth Olsen
To you, that world. No, not at all. There's six of us in my dad's house and four in my mom's. And so they.
- [08:14]
Rachel Martin
I didn't realize you had so many siblings.
- [08:17]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah. And so it. So I really felt in some ways like I just. You. You kind of. You're just kind of on your own when you have that many kids in your family. Which is why it's hard for me to think of something that really created a different trajectory. I mean, there are definitely kind of told you so moments from, you know, other people who gave me advice that I didn't take.
- [08:45]
Rachel Martin
They then came back and said, told.
- [08:47]
Elizabeth Olsen
You so, yeah, but they could if they wanted to. Like, there are definitely things that I could have learned from, but I needed to make the mistakes myself before taking advice blindly because I just. I'm stubborn in ways and needed to figure it out. So I'm also not answering the question because I really genuinely don't know how to.
- [09:11]
Rachel Martin
Is there. So I'm going to nudge on this. Is there an example that you'd be willing to share of a piece of advice that you did not take?
- [09:21]
Elizabeth Olsen
No, because to tell you the truth, all the good advice that I. That I did ignore and maybe would have benefited from came from my sisters. And it always becomes such a bigger story when I introduce things that they told me or, you know, whatever.
- [09:38]
Rachel Martin
That's okay. Yeah, I understand. It's a strange thing to grow up in that dynamic with these particular siblings.
- [09:46]
Elizabeth Olsen
Well, especially because we do all live our lives in a very private way in a world that everything's so outwardly facing now. And. And so when it. When it's about my work, when it pivots and I feel like I'm roping them into something I didn't sign up for is when I. Is when I feel bad. And I had to learn that how growing, you know, through my career of how to be honest about myself. But also.
- [10:12]
Rachel Martin
Yeah.
- [10:13]
Elizabeth Olsen
Figure out the. The separation.
- [10:16]
Rachel Martin
Yeah, totally. I respect that. But it's nice to hear, obviously, as sisters do, they gave you advice and you could take it or not take it.
- [10:24]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [10:24]
Rachel Martin
They might come back and be like.
- [10:27]
Elizabeth Olsen
And I could have benefited from taking it.
- [10:29]
Rachel Martin
Yeah.
- [10:30]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [10:39]
NPR Sponsor
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- [11:07]
Audrey Evans
This message comes from Pemco Mutual Insurance Company. You know that moment when things take an unexpected turn and you get that sudden sinking feeling that maybe it could have been avoided? Pemco Insurance wants to help you avoid that feeling by sharing prevention tips that empower you to prevent some of life's preventable pitfalls? Because Pemco's commitment to their customers goes beyond the moment of acclaim, it's about being with their customers every day. More@pemco.com Prevention this message comes from Thuma. Create your oasis With Thuma, a modern design company that specializes in furniture and home goods by stripping away everything but the essential. Thuma makes elevated beds with premium materials and intentional details with clean lines, subtle curves and minimalist style. The Thuma bed collection is available in four signature finishes to match any design aesthetic. To get $100 towards your first bed purchase, go to T. Huma Co, NPR this message comes from dsw. Where'd you get those shoes? Easy. They're from dsw because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com.
- [12:41]
Rachel Martin
We'Re going to pull back from the game and talk about the new movie you're in the assessment. I gave a little bit of a sketch of it in the introduction, but do you mind doing the heavy lifting and in your words, describe the world that your character Mia is inhabiting when this where this movie takes place?
- [13:00]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah, it's a sort of near future sci fi where the circumstances of the environment and resources have forced the world to create basically a bubble within the world. So now there's a new world and an old world. And within this world, people are also taking supplements so that they can survive longer. Like we're all pretending we want to do with the transhumanist movement.
- [13:31]
Rachel Martin
Yeah, forever does not sound good to me.
- [13:34]
Elizabeth Olsen
Well, no, it sounds like we're gonna destroy all of our resources if we keep doing that. And so what are the consequences within that? But it creates this world where the only avenue to have a child is out of utero because of this supplement that people are taking. So you have to be approved by the government or the state, I should say, to be allow to have that opportunity to have a child. And so the character I play, Mia, and her husband Arian, played by Himesh Patel. So we're being assessed by Alicia Vikander's character, the assessor, Virginia, on whether or not we are allowed to be granted this opportunity to be parents.
- [14:18]
Rachel Martin
Yeah, so it does feel like post apocalyptic stories are in the ether as it were right now. I mean, in my own streaming queue, I've got a lot of stuff that's of this ilk where we imagine the worst of what happens when the earth is destroyed. For whatever reasons, political climate change, scarce resources.
- [14:45]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [14:46]
Rachel Martin
Is that. Do you consume that kind of stuff for yourself? Do you watch those shows? Do you read those books? Or do you tend to stay away from it?
- [14:54]
Elizabeth Olsen
No, I tend to read and watch things that aren't necessarily completely directly related to what I'm working on, but things that I think could be helpful with ideas. So for this film, I read the Possibility of an island by Michelle Welbeck, and I found that book to be a thing to get into the. The mindset of living forever. That one specifically is more about.
- [15:25]
Rachel Martin
Yeah. I don't know the book.
- [15:26]
Elizabeth Olsen
It's more like Mickey 17 in a way, but not. But it's a conversation between present day Daniel 1 and I can't remember which Daniel 17 or something because we've created the ability to clone. But as you get further and further away, it becomes more and more and more like a robot and less and less human. And I enjoyed reading that. It kind of opened up similar themes, I guess, for me to think about. And, you know, even if it's not directly related, but you look at it.
- [15:58]
Rachel Martin
Through a professional lens, you don't. You don't read this stuff or consume this stuff personally to the point that it is frightening, the prospect of that actually happening.
- [16:10]
Elizabeth Olsen
I don't think so. I. I'm the type of person that really does believe in, like, goodness and morality, winning in life. I just have to believe that I'm not. I'm. I'm cynical and I'm contrarian by nature, as we've learned with me not taking advice and. And I question everything, but I think the heart of my whole mind is people who are good will ultimately win. When I think about, I don't know, history in ways, obviously, when you look back, there's so many things that in lots of countries where that doesn't happen and I don't know, I don't like being bleak and thinking that the world's going to end at any given moment.
- [17:12]
Rachel Martin
Yeah. It also can be unproductive to live in that space.
- [17:17]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah, I think so. I don't know how it's helpful to be catastrophic about everything. And so I think that's just kind of how I look at all of the things that we can catastrophize as people in the world.
- [17:34]
Rachel Martin
Yeah. Thank you. We're gonna get back into the game.
- [17:38]
Elizabeth Olsen
Great.
- [17:39]
Rachel Martin
Yeah. You ready?
- [17:40]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yes.
- [17:41]
Audrey Evans
Okay.
- [17:41]
Rachel Martin
Next round, three new cards. 1, 2 or 3?
- [17:46]
Elizabeth Olsen
2.
- [17:50]
Rachel Martin
How much do you rely on the validation of others?
- [17:55]
Elizabeth Olsen
Um, I have, I think, a very. As an actor A very healthy relationship with not relying that much on the validation of others.
- [18:09]
Rachel Martin
Really.
- [18:09]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [18:10]
Rachel Martin
Was that always the case for you though? Even when you were younger?
- [18:13]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah. God, Elizabeth, I think, honestly, I think it has to do with there being so many kids in a house.
- [18:21]
Rachel Martin
Yeah.
- [18:22]
Elizabeth Olsen
That I. If I relied on. My dad believes that he. My dad being so not a socialist. The opposite. He believes he raised us in like a socialist environment where everyone was equal. Not everyone gets a trophy. That's like kind of the things he, you know, the platitudes he stands on. So I was never gonna get it. I mean, I got like encouragement, like that was like, you know, your team won or like good job, or that was a great play. Or, you know, your arms. Like my mom telling me that my arms were nice. And the ballet performance I did, but it was never exhausted. Like out of place, exaggerated. I'm so proud of you. You're so brilliant. Like, I never got that.
- [19:17]
Rachel Martin
It felt real. It was authentic and.
- [19:20]
Elizabeth Olsen
And it was specific, not over the top and honest. And so I think I don't expect potentially that from people because, I don't know, maybe there's a self love issue in there for me. Not wanting to want validation from others.
- [19:36]
Rachel Martin
Well, that you are fine. That you're.
- [19:38]
Elizabeth Olsen
Or maybe it's. Maybe it's healthy. Yeah, maybe.
- [19:40]
Rachel Martin
I think it's super healthy.
- [19:42]
Elizabeth Olsen
Okay. I also, I don't have Instagram. I don't engage in a public facing way. I do think that creates a need for other people's approval and validation. That if we were to live our lives without, we would have less of.
- [20:07]
Rachel Martin
Maybe it was just baked into you or maybe your parents really did do a good job, but you seem altogether balanced and together, my dear. And I just feel like the world, you industry can be really hard in those ways.
- [20:20]
Elizabeth Olsen
I do live my life in fear of dying at all times, but other than that.
- [20:26]
Rachel Martin
That's the next round, Lizzie. We'll get to the dying. Three more cards in this round. One, two or three.
- [20:38]
Elizabeth Olsen
One, please.
- [20:40]
Rachel Martin
What is something you still feel you need to prove to the people you meet? I feel like you're gonna say nothing.
- [20:46]
Elizabeth Olsen
Mmm, no. I mean, I think, I think my taste in a creative way, I think I haven't always successfully made choices in my work that are aligned with my personal taste. And that is something I'm. I feel like I'm still trying to prove when I meet people, especially if it's a work type meeting and be able to express my personal taste in films, literature. So I still think I have that to prove because you didn't really want.
- [21:28]
Rachel Martin
To be a superhero or am I making a conclusion?
- [21:31]
Elizabeth Olsen
I mean, I did actually. I really wanted, when I started Marvel, I thought they were such great Greek type scale stories that reflected politics, culture in a really lovely way. And so I felt really, I felt really proud to jump into it. And then within the last 10 years, it's taken on this narrative of like, it's like a hot take. Whether an actor says they want, they would never do a Marvel movie or not, or.
- [22:05]
Rachel Martin
But what is it about your taste that you feel insecure about or that.
- [22:08]
Elizabeth Olsen
I think that is why? Because I've spent so many years doing Marvel that I feel like all the other jobs I have to do have to really reflect my personal taste. Because I, as much as I love being a part of this world and I'm proud of what I've been able to do with the character, it's not really the art that I consume, which I've been very, I think, honest about. And so I feel like I have to really focus on what to couple all of those films and shows that I do with Marvel with to showcase my taste. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [22:52]
Rachel Martin
Because again, in the short time I've known you are, you're an intellectual person. Even just now you're reading of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Greek tragedy and all, you're bringing an intellectual bent to it that I don't know if 90% of the population would bring. But I can tell that it is important to you to be respected by your peers and for you to be understood for the full 360 degree dimension that you are not just this one part of you.
- [23:26]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yes. So yeah, even though I don't seek the word necessarily, validation, I do want this kind of understanding of the bigger picture of me as a creative person in the world and what my goals are.
- [23:42]
Rachel Martin
Yeah.
- [23:48]
Elizabeth Olsen
Foreign.
- [23:54]
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- [24:41]
Audrey Evans
From Charles Schwab with their original podcast Choiceology. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Download the latest episode and subscribe@schwab.com podcast this message comes from Carvana. Sell your car right now to Carvana. Just enter your license plate or VIN and get a real offer that's good for seven days. Sell to Carvana today.
- [25:08]
Rachel Martin
This is the last round. Elizabeth.
- [25:11]
Elizabeth Olsen
Okay, okay.
- [25:12]
Rachel Martin
This is beliefs.
- [25:14]
Elizabeth Olsen
Okay, okay.
- [25:16]
Rachel Martin
One, Two or three?
- [25:18]
Elizabeth Olsen
Three.
- [25:19]
Rachel Martin
Three. What is an instinct you have learned to trust?
- [25:30]
Elizabeth Olsen
If I feel safe. I love traveling so much and because I like going to lots of strange places that maybe as like a, you know, woman on her own in the world should be like looking around and make sure she's okay. And I think even if you're out at three in the morning or something that, you know, I'm like walking in the middle of a street because it's the brightest part of the road just in case someone pops out of a car. So I'm always ready for someone to attack me and I, you know, when you're carrying your bag, how you're carrying your bag, I think I have a good instinct for that because it so far, knock on wood has not put me in a bad situation.
- [26:20]
Rachel Martin
Yeah, I remember having a conversation with my dad. He since passed, but we were, I don't know what brought it up, but it was about being a woman in the world and he had read something that made him want to ask me like, do you really, are you really assessing people all the time. And I'm like, yeah, all the time. Yeah, you know, where's the door? I don't know.
- [26:45]
Elizabeth Olsen
Just especially your interactions with like parking lots to me are terrifying.
- [26:51]
Rachel Martin
They're the worst. Especially when I've lost my car, which happens more times than I want to admit. And I'm like beeping, trying to listen for the car and I'm like, I better find the thing before. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I get it. I get it.
- [27:03]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah.
- [27:04]
Rachel Martin
Okay. Few more cards. 1, 2 or 3?
- [27:09]
Elizabeth Olsen
3.
- [27:12]
Rachel Martin
Do you think there's more to reality than we can see or feel?
- [27:21]
Elizabeth Olsen
More to reality than we can see or feel. My instinct is to say yes. I recently become not obsessed but very interested in trying to find language of non tangible things that I believe are real and, and I don't like the word spirituality personally. I feel like there's just a lot of connotations that I put onto it that have to do with sets of belief that I don't feel aligned to.
- [28:03]
Rachel Martin
Can you give me one example of a belief that you let go or something that doesn't sit with you within the construct of spirituality?
- [28:13]
Elizabeth Olsen
I let me think like moon circles or something like when people celebrate the full moon.
- [28:25]
Rachel Martin
Sure.
- [28:26]
Elizabeth Olsen
I don't actually believe in the power of these icons or. It's also organized religion, which I think are great for people.
- [28:41]
Rachel Martin
Neither feels like home to you.
- [28:43]
Elizabeth Olsen
Neither feel like home to you.
- [28:43]
Rachel Martin
Moon ceremony or organized religion?
- [28:46]
Elizabeth Olsen
No. And yet the word that I have now adopted are atemporal.
- [28:56]
Rachel Martin
Atemporal is a good word.
- [28:57]
Elizabeth Olsen
It's a good word.
- [28:59]
Rachel Martin
Yeah.
- [28:59]
Elizabeth Olsen
But it's like a. It's a. It's a thing. I feel that. I don't feel like I have language I like for. And so I've started using the word atemporal. Like there's the temporal body and the atemporal body or the atemporal self, which is the things we can't quantify. Like you can't quantify love, you can't quantify creativity, you can't quantify. But it exists as a part of a person.
- [29:25]
Rachel Martin
Do you think when you die, you just die from dust to dust or does something else happen after that?
- [29:32]
Elizabeth Olsen
No, I think dust to dust. That's what I think. And I believe what carries on our stories. Like I do. I just believe it's like how it's. It's how we treat people and how what our effect is on others is the thing that carries on and lives, touching people or being a part of someone's lives, making an impression that will continue.
- [30:02]
Rachel Martin
Yeah. The dust to dust thing, does that make your. Your preoccupation with death? Does it help or make it worse?
- [30:13]
Elizabeth Olsen
It makes it worse, I think.
- [30:14]
Rachel Martin
Yeah.
- [30:15]
Elizabeth Olsen
Anytime I have this conversation about. Because I love actually talking about death quite a bit. When people are okay with death. I like wish I had that feeling. I do not want to do it. I'm scared of it.
- [30:28]
Rachel Martin
The dying. Yeah. No, I don't.
- [30:31]
Elizabeth Olsen
I'm not into the world. I don't want it to come out from a corner and surprise me and be like, in the parking garage. Right. Death is terrifying to me.
- [30:40]
Rachel Martin
But you also said that you love talking about it, so is there.
- [30:45]
Elizabeth Olsen
Because I want to know when people say that, like, if they, like. I know I can't flip again, but if. Are you. How are you cool with the idea of death?
- [30:55]
Rachel Martin
I mean, I'm not cool with it, but there's. It's just. It's an inevitability. Right. And I don't want to be. I want to go out being okay. Like, my. Not to get too. My mom was so afraid of dying. She died of cancer a long time ago now. 16 years. And watching her go through that was really hard. But no, I don't want to be afraid in the end because how that makes the people in your life feel. Because I'm gonna check out and I'm not gonna know that I'm gone. But the people are left, and they're gonna be left with a memory of how you exited the world.
- [31:42]
Elizabeth Olsen
Right.
- [31:43]
Rachel Martin
And, you know, you're a people pleaser too. I wanna do it right.
- [31:50]
Elizabeth Olsen
I want to take away their burden as much as you can.
- [31:54]
Rachel Martin
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm afraid of how I'm gonna be. I don't know if I'm brave enough to do that. I can talk a good game about it, but maybe I am gonna be scared. And it's not a sad thing either. It's like a. I mean, it is, obviously, but we have to do it. We have to do it.
- [32:14]
Elizabeth Olsen
It is not to bring it back to assessment, but to bring it back to assessment if we don't die and we continue to just use. Just use, use, use and stay old forever. Like, what is that world knowing? I'm not the point of that.
- [32:32]
Rachel Martin
Yeah, no, no. It's too much.
- [32:35]
Elizabeth Olsen
Or even, like, longer than, you know, like. Like, I don't. Like 120. I don't know. That doesn't sound right to me.
- [32:42]
Rachel Martin
It's just too much forever. Okay, that was good. All right, it's the last three. Okay. One, two or three?
- [32:54]
Elizabeth Olsen
Two.
- [32:57]
Rachel Martin
What truth guides your life more than any other?
- [33:05]
Elizabeth Olsen
What truth guides my life? I don't know. I don't know if I'm answering it correctly. Being kind. Sometimes people act in really strange ways, and it is usually reactive of, like, insecurities or fears or inability to communicate. And if you could just, like, be nice and be normal, just, like, calm down. But that's like my truth. That's like my barometer of things. And so I guess that kind of constant perspective. I mean, sometimes it's so hard. Like, there are things that are inescapable responsibilities that we have that come up with loved ones or work or whatever. Just these responsibilities that sometimes feel like a chokehold. But those responsibilities aren't excuses to be assholes.
- [34:17]
Rachel Martin
Truth.
- [34:18]
Elizabeth Olsen
Like, everyone's got something and the perspectives are going to be different. What might not be a big deal to you, could be a big deal to someone else. And it doesn't matter. And as long as there's just like kindness, I think that's. That's helpful.
- [34:39]
Rachel Martin
Elizabeth Olsen. Words to live by. Don't be an asshole.
- [34:42]
Elizabeth Olsen
Don't be an asshole.
- [34:44]
Rachel Martin
Don't be an asshole.
- [34:44]
Elizabeth Olsen
Be normal.
- [34:45]
Rachel Martin
Pretty simple.
- [34:46]
Elizabeth Olsen
Yeah. Yeah.
- [34:56]
Rachel Martin
We end the show the same way every time with a trip in our memory time machine. So you get to go back to one moment in your past. It is a moment you would not change anything about. It's just a moment you would like to linger in a little longer. What moment do you choose?
- [35:21]
Elizabeth Olsen
Um, like I. I'm thinking about because I just got. I just left London and I'd been living there for a couple months and I've lived there throughout work. I think the parks there are really like magical places. And I was living in Hampstead by the heath. And there is a day where there is this father and daughter who had these very fancy pond boats that they together they were electric would, you know. And she was probably 16 or something and she was with her dad playing with these boats. It was clearly this thing that they do. And I found it to be so boring that watching them do this. And I was thinking and I just.
- [36:16]
Rachel Martin
Had the most tell me how moving it was because that was the moment they're like.
- [36:20]
Elizabeth Olsen
It was one of those things where I was sitting and I was having a great time. Like I was with my husband. I were just like sitting on this bench. We were just like chatting away about people that were watching. It was a perfect, like cold, but sun was out, but it was like cloudy also. It was like all the things you want London to be in that time of year. And I was watching this father and daughter and I was thinking, this is a perfect example of like in 30 years she is just going to glorify it and like the actual tedious boredom it seemed. But in her memory she's going to romanticize it and think about how lovely was.
- [37:02]
Rachel Martin
Wait, this is so meta. Your memory time machine is transporting yourself back to a place in London where you were judging someone else's potential memory.
- [37:15]
Elizabeth Olsen
I guess that's what is happening. But I think it's because all I.
- [37:19]
Rachel Martin
Want to do is just.
- [37:20]
Elizabeth Olsen
I don't know. It was one of those days where I was just endlessly fascinated by the things we choose to do in idleness. Maybe it's kind of amazing to watch being present and watching people be idle and their hobbies that they do in idleness. I enjoyed. And you're in this kind of timeless city in a park that could kind of be at any, you know, any time in the world, the world's history. And it just, it just kind of felt fun to just sit there and admire human behavior and choices.
- [38:04]
Rachel Martin
Elizabeth Olsen, you can see her now in the film the Assessment, which is out at this very moment. Thank you so much for doing this, Elizabeth.
- [38:13]
Elizabeth Olsen
Thank you. Thanks for the show.
- [38:28]
Rachel Martin
If you like my conversation with Elizabeth Olsen, go back and check out the episode we did with her, WandaVision co star Kathryn Hahn. They've had similar trajectories in their careers, and they can navigate the Marvel Cinematic Universe with as much warmth and depth as they bring to the indie films that they're also known for. If you want more with Elizabeth, check out this week's Wildcard, where she shares her secret to de escalating heated situations.
- [38:55]
Elizabeth Olsen
It's really disarming. Yeah. And they just, people don't know what to do with it.
- [39:00]
Rachel Martin
You can hear that answer by signing up for Wildcard plus, which is an excellent way to support our show and public radio and listen. Sponsor free. Find out more at plus.NPR.org Wild Wildcard this episode was produced by Romel Wood with help from Chris Benderev and edited by Dave Blanchard. It was mastered by Patrick Murray. Wildcard's executive producer is Yolanda Sangweni. Our theme music is by Ramtin Arablouei. You can reach out to us@wildcardnpr.org you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna shuffle the deck and be back with more next week. Talk to you then. Foreign.
- [39:46]
Audrey Evans
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