The actor Elizabeth Olsen wants to emulate: “She’s good in everything she does”

Posted On September 10, 2025September 10, 2025

When your older siblings have been acting since they were nine months old, it’s only inevitable that you’ll get sucked into the world of cinema, too, which is what happened with Elizabeth Olsen, born into the twin conglomerate of her sisters, toddler-famous Mary-Kate and Ashley. 

By the early 1990s, the twins had started to land movie roles that proved incredibly popular with child audiences, and here, the young Olsen made her onscreen debut. When she was just five, she appeared in the cinematic crime that was How the West was Fun alongside her sisters, although it wouldn’t be until 2011 that she would appear in another movie, now considerably older and well-versed in the study of acting. 

Not every film that Elizabeth picked while starting out was all that great, like Spike Lee’s heinous Oldboy remake, but with a mid-credit debut as Wanda Maximoff in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the actor began her tenure as a Marvel icon. Say what you want about Marvel (don’t even get me started), but at least the youngest Olsen’s character, alongside Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, helped to make the MCU less male-dominated. 

She is one of the most popular Marvel recruits in recent years, a complex superhero figure in the shade of X-Men‘s Jean Grey, whom Olsen has earned significant praise for playing. The role has somewhat taken over her career, however, and between 2018 and 2021, the only movies she appeared in saw her play Wanda, with 2021’s explorative mini-sitcom WandaVision marking her peak. 

Despite this, it appears that Olsen wants to branch out to a more diverse array of titles. After all, she can’t play Wanda forever, and it already seems like she is moving into greater territory, as demonstrated by recent appearances in the family drama His Three Daughters and sci-fi thriller The Assessment.

In an interview with Spinning Platters, Olsen revealed the one actor whose career inspires her the most, although she knows that everyone’s acting trajectories work in completely different ways. “I have no control over the future. And I kinda like that feeling! But I do really respect and think that Kate Winslet is very smart with the choices she has made,” she explained. 

Who can blame her for admiring Winslet, who has repeatedly proved her brilliance with award-winning performances that span genres, from genial rom-com lead to gruff and traumatised small-town investigator? She’s a British icon and Hollywood miracle. “I think she’s good in everything she does, whether it’s The Holiday or Holy Smoke or Titanic or Mildred Pierce. She’s just really brilliant in everything, and she does all kinds of different things, but she’s great in all of it,” Olsen added. 

Perhaps our scarlet starlet will continue to expand into even more daring universes like Winslet. Clearly, Olsen has the star power and the talent to carry her past the machinations of Hollywood; only time will tell if she can follow through.

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