Thanks to her increasingly prominent role in the MCU, Elizabeth Olsen is now a name more people than ever are familiar with. However, it’s a moniker she considered changing when she was younger due to not wanting to ride the fame of her sisters.
If you’re unaware (and it recently transpired than many people were), Olsen’s older siblings are Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, twins famous since practically the day they were born after growing up on camera in sitcom Full House (which inspired WandaVision’s ‘80s setting) and appearing in numerous films throughout the ‘90s and early ‘00s, their gimmick of being cute twins sisters launching their popularity stratospheric. However, the younger Olsen had no interest in becoming successful purely by virtue of being related to them, and recalls considering going by a different name when she started acting, as she explains below.
#ElizabethOlsen opens up about why she wanted to change her surname growing up: "I guess I understood what nepotism was inherently as a 10-year-old. There is some sort of association of not earning something that I think bothered me." https://t.co/EGW3BAI6dK pic.twitter.com/h2cUnQeTqI
— British GLAMOUR (@GlamourMagUK) April 21, 2021
Olsen has certainly proved that she didn’t need it being known that she was related to the famous blonde dyad, even though it was regularly mentioned when she started out. Her debut role in dramatic thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene saw her nominated for multiple awards and wining half a dozen of them, and this was followed by a number of well-received performances in indie films before starring in the 2013 Oldboy remake, appearing in her inaugural blockbuster with 2014’s Godzilla and soon after becoming forever associated with Wanda Maximoff, now officially the Scarlet Witch.
As well as sidestepping accusations of nepotism, it’s possible Elizabeth Olsen also wanted to avoid being constantly compared to her sisters, a constant danger due to the siblings being so similar in age (Elizabeth is less than three years younger than Mary-Kate and Ashley) and looks. The twins’ fame has since faded since they retired from acting together in favor of fashion design (although Mary-Kate went on to have a handful of solo roles), so now when someone mentions the Olsen Sister, it’s most likely the younger one they mean.