Getting the Scoop from Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch!! #AvengersEvent #AgeofUltron

Just sitting down with Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch – No Big Deal!

Interviewing Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth (Lizzy) Olsen

Our first interview on our Avengers: Age of Ultron press day was with two of the newest members of the cast – Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth (Lizzy) Olsen.  Both Aaron and Elizabeth walked into the room smiling at the warm reception they received.  We were very excited to get press day underway and what better way then with two of the newest ‘super heroes’.

As Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch, Aaron and Elizabeth play twins in Avengers: Age of Ultron, who have had a hard background and are initially against the Avengers.  However, I will refrain from revealing more in this post, come back on May 1st for my full review of the movie and more about the close relationship that exists between the twins.

Right away Aaron was asked about his running, his character does a lot of running, and while some of it was special effects, he was asked just how much running did he do for the movie?

Yeah. That was pretty much what I did all day long. You know, it was like if in doubt, run. Yeah, all the special effects is sped up. We’d shoot the scene – like if Lizzy was in the scene I’d run up to her. We’d shoot that. We did the dialogue and then we’d have to do a plate afterwards where she’d step out and I’d do the run up and then they would speed that up. It’s like a plate shot. But yeah, even though you wouldn’t really know because it goes so quick. But yeah, all the running where there’s a blur it was me behind it.”

Both Aaron and Elizabeth were asked what the audition process was like.  Elizabeth answered that they actually did not audition for this role.  Both Aaron and Elizabeth met with Joss (Whedon) separately, prior to making Godzilla and later on, once they were wrapping up Godzilla they each received a phone call that they had got the roles in Age of Ultron.

Elizabeth:  It was really crazy and exciting and Aaron and I were really excited that we got to work with each other again more so because in Godzilla we, if you’d seen it we didn’t really get to work with each other as much.

Aaron:  Stepping onto the set seemed kind of, you know, it was such a big ensemble. It felt kind of daunting, you know, to step on with Lizzy who we already had that kind of work relationship which made it feel a lot more comfortable.”

From Aaron’s reply I asked, “You said that when you came onto the set with you and Elizabeth working together before that made it easier but what was it like coming out to the set with the already established cast?”  Aaron said that it was definitely daunting coming to set with the cast where this is the fourth or fifth movie playing these characters.  They are comfortable on set and with each other.  He continues to say that it very quickly became a family environment, that they are all a lot of fun, relaxed and chill.

To prepare for this role both Aaron and Elizabeth requested a lot of research on their characters and in return they were provided with every comic book page their characters appeared on, which, according to Elizabeth was “this huge stack.”   Elizabeth believes that Scarlet Witch is one of the coolest characters in the entire universe of Marvel.  Of course I am sure she could be slightly biased 😉 .  She states that she was intrigued by the fact that her character has a lot to play with.  Scarlet Witch’s powers are largely psychological instead of just being physical.  In addition to researching his character, Aaron also focused his preparation on perfecting the accent of Quicksilver based on his origin as well as his look, based on the comic books.

The relationship between Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch is a very close relationship and according to Aaron;

Quicksilver needs Scarlet Witch because they’re very much balance off each other.  They’re twins and they’re very much ying and yang in the way their personalities are. He might be quick, in speed, but he’s kind of quick in temperament, and hotheaded and impatient and all those things I wanted to kind of play around with, and especially balancing against her more thoughtful, slower, more emotional sort of nurturing side with him, so they are always drawn really close together and connected.”

Asked what was the most challenging scene to shoot, Elizabeth replied with;

The one that was the hardest one for me was when Scarlet Witch can see what’s gonna happen if Ultron has control over the vision because a lot of times my character just had to respond to something that is not existent most of the time ‘cause it just like popped into her head and like no one else felt it but I did. So I have to have like some humongous reaction that is coming from nothing and so that always just kind of feels stupid until you really just go for it.”

Following this Elizabeth was asked, “Since basically all of your powers are special effects how was it for you to act out those parts where you’re just kind of staring?”

Well, you know what it’s actually really fun because a lot of people have stunt doubles and my stuff is like a dance kind of and so I can’t have a stunt double come in and do that, so I was like always doing everything whereas, I even had to do like a triple flip back kick situation but I always got to be in control over my, my characters body movements which was cool and, and it was fun because there’s no blueprint to how Scarlet Witch moves ‘cause you just see these like awesome finger, hand gestures and these circular red things.

I worked with a movement coach and she and I watched Joss’s version of Scarlet Witch and that was really enjoyable to watch ‘cause he would do the motions and we would interpret it into our own thing but it was really fun. I mean it was really fun to work with the dancer on something like that and it adds a different element to the fighting, a different visual element to the fighting.  And it also felt a little funny because you’re like I’m not making contact with anything, like literally zero contact. So, you just kind of trust that they’re gonna put a robot where my eyes are looking or something.  There’s a lot of trust that goes in when you have special effects that I wasn’t used to and then after seeing the movie I was like aha, now I’m comfortable.”

 

Sitting down with Aaron and Elizabeth was a lot of fun, and getting to know more about them and their characters added a unique insight into the newest members of the Avengers and I am excited to be able to share that with you today.  I encourage you to come back tomorrow morning when I will be sharing my interview with Joss Whedon, the director of the Avengers: Age of Ultron, for an exclusive acumen into the movie, as we ramp up to the release this Friday!!  Enjoy the following trailer videos, just incase you weren’t already excited enough;

Don’t forget – Avengers: Age of Ultron in theaters May 1^st

DON’T Miss it, less than a week to go!!!

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Disclosure: Disney provided me with an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles including travel, accommodations and activities. All thoughts and opinions are my own.