Elizabeth Olsen Talks 'Wind River' and 'Ingrid Goes West'
V sat down with the actor at the Sundance Film Festival to discuss her new film.
V sat down with the actor at the Sundance Film Festival to discuss her new film.
Starring in Wind River and Ingrid Goes West, both of which premiered at Sundance this year, Elizabeth Olsen couldn’t have played two more diametrically opposed roles. In the first, Olsen is Jane Banner, a federal agent investigating a murder on a Native American reservation, while Ingrid Goes West finds her as Taylor Sloan, a social media influencer with a bewitching Instagram account (Olsen herself did not have one prior to playing the role). “They are really different parts, so it was kind of hilarious that they were both at Sundance together,” says Olsen.
The two roles also find Olsen exploring very differing forms of power. Preparing for Wind River, Olsen notes, “I worked with a Green Beret and I got to go to the gun range every weekend.” Meanwhile, her turn as an Instagram star in Ingrid Goes West opened the actress’s eyes to the power of social media. In the film, costar Aubrey Plaza plays a superfan who drops everything to befriend Olsen’s character in Los Angeles. “I didn’t know you could have a profession on Instagram, I thought it was just something people talked about, but wasn’t a real thing,” she laughs. Still, the starlet found ample research for the role, including travel and decor inspiration. “It was really odd to be privy to these people’s worlds. Like, who is taking their pictures all the time? But, I was jealous of some of the things in their apartments.”
Nowadays, Olsen is no social media neophyte—she joined the platform in late February and already has 413,000 followers. She also hopes to mimic the kind of account fellow A-lister Margot Robbie has, saying, “She has the best actress Instagram. You don’t know really too much about her, but you can see her out and about.”
Aside from filming the next two Avengers movies, Olsen will find herself in a producing role for an upcoming unannounced television series and film. “I like being able to be someone who brings the right people together,” she says. “I love to be a part of every decision.”
