INTERVIEW: Elizabeth Olsen on Picking Roles: "I'm in this Very Excited Happy Place"
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- Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 November 2013 07:05
- Written by Lupe Haas
Elizabeth Olsen next appears in the horror film SILENT HOUSE directed by Open Water directing team Chris Kentis and Laura Lau. Since her new found Hollywood career, Elizabeth Olsen has been selective with her roles. Olsen recently told CineMovie before Martha Marcy May Marlene she would take any role that came her way. Thanks to the buzz surrounding her break-through performance last year she is able to read through various scripts and choose projects which will challenge her - as was the case with the independently-produced SILENT HOUSE. SILENT HOUSE takes place in a single setting where she is being terrorized in an abandoned home.
Before her big debut, she struggled for over a year looking for work as an actress and she didn't foresee being in a position where she had a choice of roles to choose from.
"I'm in this very excited happy place where I get to choose things based on character, people involved, director.... Right now I'm just king of choosing things that I think will challenge me or things I haven't done or feel comfortable doing. And that's how I'm choosing."Another key factor in her decisions is avoiding playing the same characters and being particularly attracted to psychologically-driven films. When the role of Sarah in SILENT HOUSE was offered to her, the 23-year-old was sold on the fact that the film would not be shot in the traditional sense but in in real-time with one-take throughout the house. She viewed it as an experiment which she couldn't pass it up.
"I was driven to this film with the challenge of creating a performance in real time. It was really exciting for me. "And its a difficult thing to do."
She was also attracted to the "intelligent horror film" which was different than any other horror flick she had seen. She admits, however, the production process was more difficult than she imagined because the cameras didn't stop rolling if something went wrong. The Tisch School of the Arts graduate dealt with obstacles on the set as the cameras followed her along the dark house. She gained an appreciation for the technical aspect of production and found it "interesting." Throughout the film, the actress has only a few scenes with other actors. On set, acting opposite a dark room was very lonely. In a scene where she jumps in a car with a family member, she can recall being content to be opposite an actual face to play off of..
While Elizabeth Olsen continues to seek characters that challenge her as an actress, there is one type of role that you probably won't find her starring in. The Olsen sibling opened up about her fear of the ocean and sharks. She says she is "terrified" of going into the ocean because of man-eating sharks to the point where she couldn't even make herself watch her SILENT HOUSE directors' previous film Open Water.
For her upcoming film releases, Elizabeth took a break from psychologically-damaged characters for lighter fare with another independently-produced film Peace, Love, & Understanding and a thriller directed by Rodrigo Cortes.
SILENT HOUSE is in movie theaters March 9, 2012.
