Elizabeth Olsen reveals she nearly changed her name at 10 years old because she ‘didn’t want to be associated’ with her famous older sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Elizabeth Olsen, 32, grew up in the shadows of her older twin sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, both 34, before making a name for herself in Hollywood. The WandaVision actress opened up in a new interview about how their fame impacted her at just 10 years old. At one point, she considered getting rid of Olsen as her last name.
“I was 10 and I was curious about auditioning… and I realized very quickly it wasn’t for me because I was missing my sports teams, my dance class, and all the extracurricular activities at school,” she told GlamourUK. “But during that time, I thought ‘I don’t want to be associated with [Mary-Kate and Ashley],’ for some reason. I guess I understood what nepotism was like inherently as a 10-year-old. I don’t know if I knew the word, but there is some sort of association of not earning something that I think bothered me at a very young age. It had to do with my own insecurities, but I was 10. So I don’t know how much I processed, but I did think, ‘I’m going to be Elizabeth Chase [her middle name] when I become an actress.’”
Mary-Kate and Ashley quit acting and launched their fashion label, The Row, in 2006. After being cast as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in a string of Marvel movies and WandaVision, Elizabeth’s level of fame has skyrocketed. His older sisters are notoriously private now after years of harsh scrutiny in the spotlight, but Elizabeth always keeps their words of advice in mind: “No is a full sentence.”
She explained the meaning behind her sisters’ words. “The word ‘No’ specifically was something that I remember my sisters isolating and it becoming really empowering,” Elizabeth said. “And for women, it’s a really empowering word. People say ‘Just say no to drugs,’ but truly, you can just say no whenever the hell you want! It’s really a powerful thing.”
As she’s risen in the ranks as an actress, she’s always used Mary-Kate and Ashley’s advice. “I always felt like I could say ‘No’ in any work situation – if someone was making me feel uncomfortable – and I just feel like that’s what we need,” the actress continued. “We don’t have to follow suit if it doesn’t feel right. We need to be listening to our gut. There was a time where women were competing with one another and now we’re at a time where women are holding each other up.”
After the massive success of Disney+’s WandaVision, Elizabeth is currently filming another Marvel project. She’s starring in the Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which will be released on March 25, 2022. “It’s a bonkers movie, they’re definitely going for that horror show vibe,” she teased.