If you watch enough horror, action, or thriller films, you will encounter some genuinely upsetting, excessive scenes. Even though what is portrayed on screen is just not ‘real’ and the actors are not actually suffering. Still, a particularly graphic or violent scene can still have a profound effect. Elizabeth Olsen had to deal with such effects while she was portraying Marie Sebastian in Spike Lee’s 2013 American neo-noir action thriller movie.
Yes, we are talking about Oldboy, which met with mixed reviews and was deemed inferior to the classic by critics. In addition to The Avengers film series, Olsen and veteran actor, Josh Brolin worked together on other projects as well.
And when filming Oldboy, a more personal film, the lead actors had to perform some intense violent scenes that the 34-year-old actress found to be upsetting.
The Spike Lee-directed 2013 film took both the actors and the audience on an emotional roller coaster.
Elizabeth Olsen Admitted She ‘Wasn’t Cast Right Off The Bat’
As an actor, it is Elizabeth Olsen‘s responsibility to give the character she is portraying on-screen a life. And as viewers, we often take such intense scenes for granted. But in actuality, actors occasionally become overly invested in their characters, and the emotions they experience are genuine.
This was true of the scene starring Olsen and Josh Brolin, which is evidence of their acting prowess. But the actress felt that “she was not cast right off the bat. I read our script and then I saw the original film.”
Her motivation to work on this film came in large part from the director, Spike Lee. She mentioned that Lee was the most cooperative filmmaker, she had worked with at that time. So when he was getting ready for her scenes with Brolin, he made sure the Love & Death actress was at ease with it.
In an interview with fellow actor Emma Brown for Interview Magazine, the actress remarked:
“It was all very collaborative. Spike would ask, ‘Do you want to change this line? Do you want to change this background point of view?’ We did rehearsals for a couple weeks and we just sat around a table—me, him, and Josh—and we just read through every scene and rewrote scenes.”
Elizabeth Olsen Described The Most Difficult Scene Of Oldboy
It is important to recognize the difficulties actors face when filming such disturbing scenes. They must convey their emotions as truthfully as they can while upholding a secure and respectful workplace. The effort that goes into making a scene that elicits strong feelings and stays with us long after the movie is over is really commendable.
Elizabeth Olsen once described some of the emotionally taxing or violent scenes in Oldboy in a candid chat with Interview Magazine.
“Probably the scene where I’m attacked. I haven’t thought about it in a while because, in hindsight, you make jokes about it and you get funny stories from it. When I was talking about it earlier today, I started to realize that it took a couple days probably to get over.”
The Avengers: Age of Ultron actress further added:
“Even if you can laugh about it, it’s still the physical things that your body has to go through, it’s pretty insane.”
Well, her role in Oldboy serves to draw attention to the difficulties actors encounter when filming such strong emotionally taxing scenes.
Oldboy is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Source – Interview Magazine
