Marvel's “WandaVision” stars Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff), Paul Bettany (Vision), Kathryn Hahn (Agnes), and Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau) discuss their Disney+ TV series in this interview with CinemaBlend Managing Editor Sean O’Connell. Olsen and Bettany discuss wearing their characters' comic book-accurate costumes and their comedic chemistry, the cast talks about going to 'sitcom boot camp' and more.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Wanda.
00:05 Wanda.
00:08 (dramatic music)
00:08 Can you read me?
00:10 ♪ WandaVision ♪
00:14 - Oh, this is gonna be a gas.
00:16 (dramatic music)
00:19 - We see something in the trailer
00:20 that wasn't in the first three episodes
00:21 and it's you in the comic accurate Scarlet Witch costume.
00:24 And I'm curious what it was like putting that on
00:26 for the first time and if you realize how important it is
00:28 for geeks like us to just see it for a moment.
00:30 - Well, I loved it.
00:33 I loved it.
00:35 And you'll see more than moments of it.
00:38 And I just thought it was such a joy
00:42 to put the thing on, to put the head,
00:44 the huge headband on and the leotard and the pink tights.
00:48 And it was, the whole thing was just hilarious.
00:52 So yeah, I'm right there with you.
00:54 - I loved that costume so much
00:57 because I didn't have to work too hard for laughs.
01:02 (laughing)
01:04 - So I've got to see the first three episodes
01:06 and to me, the classic sitcom miscommunications
01:11 were so incredibly funny.
01:12 When did you and Paul realize
01:13 how strong your comedic chemistry was together?
01:16 'Cause it's not something that was needed in the MCU.
01:19 - I don't know.
01:22 I think he and I, we constantly just kind of felt
01:24 like we were swinging for the fences because we could.
01:27 With being in these sitcoms
01:30 and he just really brought his Dick Van Dyke,
01:33 his inner Dick Van Dyke, and he was just fantastic.
01:36 - Yeah, I don't know.
01:37 I guess it was when we shot episode one
01:39 and we did it in front of a live studio audience
01:42 and people seemed to really enjoy it.
01:45 And I was terrified and so was Lizzie.
01:49 And so actually maybe Katherine Hahn wasn't terrified,
01:54 but I certainly was.
01:56 And it was just such an awesome experience.
02:01 - Hiya, kids.
02:02 Auntie Agnes is here
02:04 and I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve.
02:06 - Let's just take it from the top.
02:09 - Humor in the different decades,
02:14 it doesn't work from one to the next.
02:16 Like what's funny in the '50s is not funny in the '60s.
02:20 And can you just talk about how you guys approached that?
02:25 - I mean, that's a really great question, Sean.
02:28 Like we did a sitcom bootcamp, which was so fun.
02:31 I'm sure they've talked about it
02:32 or someone has talked to you about it.
02:33 - Well, first we went through this whole sitcom bootcamp
02:36 just to really understand the tone
02:38 and the structure for each different decade.
02:42 - We've got to watch examples of every decade,
02:47 or every sitcom that we were gonna be shooting
02:51 from that decade.
02:52 And so that was very helpful.
02:54 In terms of the jokes, like Jack Schaefer wrote scripts
02:57 that were very, especially like,
03:00 I felt it in the '50s and '60s,
03:02 but in all of them that were so,
03:05 they weren't satirizing or parodying that time period.
03:10 Parodying?
03:11 Is that it?
03:12 But that time period, but really were specific and true.
03:16 Like it was important for us to get inside of the decade
03:20 rather than make fun of it from the outside,
03:23 if that makes sense.
03:23 Our head writer, Jack Schaefer,
03:26 just did such a beautiful job being so particular
03:30 and specific for each decade
03:32 and making sure we captured that,
03:34 the spirit of each decade.
03:38 So that definitely huge shout out to Jack and her team
03:43 in making that, those switches.
03:45 It's not very easy.
03:46 And then as for us as the actors,
03:48 sometimes you have laugh tracks and sometimes you don't.
03:51 And how does the comedy and the pauses
03:53 and all of that work?
03:55 It was definitely a learning situation.
03:59 - Wanda, what's up?
04:01 - Who are you?
04:03 - I don't know.
04:04 - I want to drill down a little bit even further too,
04:06 is just in terms of the energy that you have to bring.
04:08 Your energy in the character is so different
04:11 from the '60s to the '70s.
04:14 And it's so totally different than what I would assume
04:16 that you're taught of how to act now.
04:19 - It was really interesting because a lot of times,
04:22 Matt, our director would be like,
04:23 "Well, you can do more.
04:25 Let's do more."
04:26 And we're like, "Woo!
04:28 We really feel like we're doing too much here, Matt."
04:31 And he's like, "I promise you, you're not."
04:33 And then once you watch it, you're like,
04:34 "Wow, it really worked.
04:37 Thanks, Matt.
04:39 Glad we trusted you."
04:40 But it really is a matter of trust
04:44 because a lot of it does feel quite antithetical
04:47 to how we do movies, television these days.
04:51 - That was really important to us.
04:53 And it is important to the show as well.
04:56 What comedy is or what humor is for each decade,
05:01 it evolves and changes.
05:02 I mean, the '80s become ridiculously sincere
05:05 with all of its, you know, all these moments
05:09 to these teaching moments and, you know, the sad music.
05:14 And it's like so strange what we watch in the '80s
05:17 and the '90s, and then we get into kind of the aughts
05:20 and the 2000s and '10s, and it's so cynical.
05:25 Everything becomes way cynical.
05:27 So it's interesting to use that type of humor
05:32 and help tell our story.
05:34 - The jokes were really, like you were pointing out,
05:37 like really true to that period.
05:39 And so we did it in front of a live studio audience.
05:41 We shot it like the '50s was in front of a live audience.
05:45 We had no idea if those jokes were gonna land
05:47 in any way because they were so from the era.
05:50 And it's surprising how much they did.
05:53 It was very hard for me, though,
05:55 who likes to improvise to not.
05:57 And it was very hard for me to run that kind of a tight ship.
06:02 Like it is just, it's so much about literally just like
06:06 timing and rehearsing your moves.
06:09 And like, I mean, I like, you know,
06:11 I'm used to a little bit more like anarchic comedy.
06:13 And so it was really fun to just to
06:15 have to be so precision, which is like, I think,
06:21 what so many of those were, it seems like.
06:24 - It also feels like a style and an energy and a pacing
06:27 that you're just not trained to do now, you know?
06:31 - Right, right, right.
06:32 But yet you can see it when it's too much.
06:34 Like, it's funny, like, you know,
06:36 yet there is such an ease.
06:37 Like I watch, you know,
06:38 watching those old Dick Van Dyke ones, you're like,
06:41 and Donna, like, they're so relaxed
06:46 and they have such an ease to them
06:48 and their chemistry is so true.
06:51 And so we took a lot like from the Dick Van Dyke show.
06:56 I mean, and I think it comes through
06:58 with just Lizzie and Paul's chemistry,
06:59 which is just like so off the charts and like just so real.
07:03 But there is such an ease.
07:07 It's so relaxed, even though like,
07:09 you know that they've like worked those beats
07:12 and those bits a bazillion times.
07:14 They just like, they're just tossed away
07:16 and there's just something so punk about it
07:17 that I was really into doing.
07:19 (gasps)
07:20 - Am I dead?
07:21 - No.
07:22 Why would you think that?
07:24 - Because you are.
07:26 (laughs)
07:27 - I'm very curious if you knew about the show,
07:29 that you guys would be doing the show
07:31 before you filmed Vision's death scene from "Infinity War."
07:36 - No.
07:37 - So when you found out then
07:38 that you were gonna be able to return to the character
07:40 in that format, what did that feel like?
07:42 - It felt like a relief.
07:44 I was, you know, I got a call from the boss.
07:47 My contract was up and I got a call from the boss
07:49 to come and see him in the office.
07:51 And so, you know, usually what that means, right?
07:54 And so I looked at my wife and I said,
07:57 "Well, I think that's it, I'm getting the can."
08:00 And so I showed up
08:02 and I didn't want anybody to feel uncomfortable.
08:04 So I kind of went in, I was like,
08:05 "Look, guys, it's been a great run, thank you so much.
08:09 I've loved it."
08:11 And they were like, "Are you quitting?"
08:13 And I went, "Aren't you firing me?"
08:15 And they went, "No."
08:16 And I went, "Oh, right.
08:18 And then we're gonna pitch you a new TV show."
08:21 And I went, "Oh, okay."
08:23 - In comic book lore, you know,
08:25 characters come back in all different crazy shapes and sizes.
08:28 So when you filmed his death, did you assume that was it?
08:31 Or you just figured, "Oh, they'll figure out some way."
08:33 - You know, I was sort of hoping
08:36 that there'd be some sort of way to reanimate me,
08:38 but that was not on the cards.
08:43 And then, you know,
08:47 and Kevin is right.
08:52 Kevin is right.
08:54 Kevin is nearly always right.
08:57 And he said, you know,
09:01 "It's gonna be more powerful if we hold this back."
09:06 And he was right.
09:10 - Kevin is right is a tattoo I feel like I need to get.
09:13 - Kevin is right.
09:14 - We are an unusual couple, you know?
09:16 - Oh, I don't think that was ever in question.
09:18 - So now that you've experienced both long-form television
09:22 and doing the movies,
09:24 if you had to choose how you would want to continue
09:26 telling Wanda's stories, which one do you prefer?
09:29 - I love the flexibility of both.
09:32 I mean, I think there's something that's really tangible
09:35 about going back to playing a film
09:38 and you have this constraint and you have this time
09:42 and the economy of time and the economy of moments in film
09:47 means something different to me now.
09:50 Like with Wanda, just, you know,
09:52 going to a film project after doing "WandaVision,"
09:58 you know, you work so hard for all these moments,
10:00 but you're moving so quickly and so fast
10:02 and there's so much to get through
10:03 that there's something really beautiful
10:05 about the economy of the film.
10:07 And so I'm loving both 'cause I also thought
10:10 the show was just always meant to happen
10:13 and it was just the most fun I've had on a project.
10:16 - Are you here to help us?
10:18 (dramatic music)
10:20 (women vocalizing)
10:26 (dramatic music)
10:28 - What is Nia DaCosta gonna bring to the MCU?
10:33 - All of her wonderfulness.
10:34 I'm really excited for her.
10:36 Yeah!
10:37 We got to work together on "Candyman,"
10:39 so to have another turn to collaborate
10:44 and work with one another, I'm really excited.
10:47 She's dope.
10:48 - Gotta see "Candyman."
10:49 Gotta see it.
10:50 - All of us.
10:51 (laughs)
10:52 - Come on.