WANDAVISION

Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen discuss the strange realm of Wandavision

This news story was recorded in front of a live studio audience. APPLAUSE!

What’s it like doing comedy with dramatic characters?

EO: It felt like I was in musical theatre camp and I was eight years old again! I was playing for laughs. I’m so used to trying to make things smaller that it was all about pushing myself to make things too big. It was the most fun an actor could have. We were allowed to be as campy as we wanted, and as sincere in a gross way. We could do so much and that freedom was very fun.

PB: I think we only got asked to dial it back once.

EO: Just once. And it was shocking that it happened!

Did this feel like you were making a TV series or a Marvel movie? PB: That’s a good question because they really wanted it to have the same production values as the movies. They did a couple of things which were very clever to achieve that. One of the things they did was to have one director and one DP, so you could cross-board the entire series. We were able to shoot anything from any episode whenever we wanted.

One of the first things they did was to shoot the first episode in two days. The second episode was shot really quickly too – over a long period of time, because of the Covid hiatus, but in terms of the amount of days, it was quick. You’re always banking more and more time for when you get into the action and effects-heavy stuff later on in the series. I thought that was incredibly clever, when you consider the amount of hours we’re getting for a fraction of the price.

EO: It was great for cohesion but it created an intense amount of challenges and made it much harder than a Marvel film. You’re essentially asking the same amount from people within the same amount of time to shoot, but you’re making six hours of content and not two.

No one but Matt [Shakman] could have done this job, but it was so hard. It was a very physically difficult shoot. The last two months we did six-day weeks and no one got Covid because we didn’t leave the set!

Were there versions that veered closer to comedy or traditional Marvel territory? EO: I think my favourite parts of this are when they’re layered on top of each other. I actually think as an actor that was really fun too – giving your character a new set of circumstances to fight against. You get to play with how much information you want to share, and how true to the sitcom world you want to be. That was really fun, to navigate those tones in the middle of the series. And then once the Marvel Cinematic Universe breaks through, it kind of feels old hat! It’s almost like there’s less to discover. But then one final episode I was just doing voiceover for just felt so satisfying too, as a Marvel fan.

What’s the future of Wandavision – another series or more films? PB: You never know.

EO: [Looks shocked] What?

PB: You never know.

EO: Well I was about to say, “It’s a perfectly told story”.

PB: I was told to say, “You never know”! The first interview I did on my own for this I said, “I think it’s a perfectly told story with a beginning, a middle and an end”, and afterwards they were like, “You don’t have to mention that it’s ending”.

EO: Well the actual truth is that we don’t know what’s going to happen. Paul’s dead after Endgame… DS

Wandavision is streaming on Disney+ now.

The last months were six-day weeks and no one got Covid because we didn’t leave the set