Olsen is picture-perfect in ‘Ingrid Goes West’
Star honed Insta skills for a satire on social media
NEW YORK If you need an Instagram-worthy brunch snap, don’t pass your phone to Martha Stewart.
“She’s the worst food photographer in the whole world — she makes Jean-Georges food look like dog food,” jokes Elizabeth Olsen, who admits her own nosh photos are similarly unappetizing. “My life revolves around prepping dinner for my family or friends, and making my breakfast look nice, but (my pictures) always look bad. It’s like Martha.”
Fortunately, Olsen’s foray into food photography was only to research her role as an enviable Instagram “influencer” in dark comedy Ingrid Goes West (in theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles, expands nationwide Aug. 25), one of two films she stars in this month, the other being Taylor Sheridan’s chilly murder mystery Wind River (now showing in New York and Los Angeles; expands to 17 cities Friday, including San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia).
In the latter, Olsen, 28, costars with her Avengers castmate Jeremy Renner as Jane Banner, a rookie FBI agent assigned to investigate the rape and death of a young Native-American woman on Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation.
Signing on, she hoped to shed light on female sexual assault, particularly in the Native American community, where missing women often go unreported. The actress wanted “to play someone with the confidence and fortitude of Jane,” Olsen says.
The Olsen twins’ younger sister was timorous about a winter shoot in the Utah wilderness but wound up having “the best time,” she says, learning to snowmobile and training in martial arts and gun work.
The frosty conditions sweetened her return to Los Angeles a few months later, when she slipped into the boho-chic garb of Ingrid’s Taylor Sloane, who becomes the social media obsession and narcissistic BFF of Aubrey Plaza’s stalkerish title character.
“I have been looking for comedies my whole career,” Olsen says. “I don’t think anyone thinks of me for a comedy,” given her résumé of monster movies (Godzilla) and low-budget dramas (Martha Marcy May Marlene).
“Lizzie’s incredibly talented, but also when you look at her, she seems perfect in a weird way,” says Ingrid director/co-writer Matt Spicer. “We didn’t have a lot of time to set up (the idea of) ‘Why does Ingrid become obsessed with this person?’ We needed the audience to just look at her and get it.”
Olsen uses her Instagram account to promote projects and occasionally shares self-aware snaps, such as paparazzi shots of her eating (hashtagged #feedmefridays).
“If people don’t understand your personality because you’re nervous in interviews or you come across weird on camera, (Instagram is) your way of showcasing your sense of humor,” Olsen says.