Elizabeth Olsen Loves When Sci-Fi Gets A Little Too Real

Elizabeth Olsen has a high tolerance for darkness: She’s played a villainess sorceress (in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), a murderous housewife (in 2023’s Love & Death), and more than one young woman wracked with grief (Sorry For Your Loss, His Three Daughters, the MCU again). But she describes her latest movie, The Assessment — a dystopian thriller set in a resource-strapped society — as kind of a blast, actually.

“I found it to be very exciting and playful, and something that I don’t think I’ve ever been able to play around in,” Olsen tells Bustle over Zoom.

Now in theaters, the film follows scientists Mia (Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) as they consent to a week-long test, in which a government official, Virginia (Alicia Vikander), moves in to decide if the couple is suitable to become parents. As Virginia’s evaluation takes dark, twisted turns — at several points, she lashes out like a destructive toddler — it pushes the couple to their limits. Sound heavy? “The whole thing had a bit of levity,” Olsen, 36, says brightly. “There’s always a sense of humor and play. I never felt burdened by this [film] because I don’t feel burdened reflecting on our existence and big questions in it. It’s the only thing I want to do every day — which makes for maybe exhausting dinner parties.”

Below, Olsen opens up about the value of sci-fi, telling stories about parenting, and why she’s excited about a rom-com renaissance.

What drew you to The Assessment?

Sci-fi is a brilliant genre for us as audiences to theorize and reflect on our existence. It’s this imaginary space where you just go with what the rules of the world are. And I thought this was a very elegant way of doing sci-fi while reflecting on all these themes — whether it’s about becoming a parent, the resources we use on this planet, choosing to try and live longer, the environment.

Your character struggles to play along amid Virginia's antics, even when she knows that doing so would be in her best interest. Can you tell me about a time in your life when pretending felt really hard?

I’m really bad at pretending, and I could benefit from being better at it. I’ve always been honest to a fault, [even] as a child. I think the hardest thing sometimes is when you are having to respond to someone who is being rude, and you have to figure out how to still maintain your own dignity by not being rude in return.

The whole “fake it till you make it” thing is hard to wrap my mind around.

There’s a benefit to knowing how someone wants you to behave, and behaving that way. I just have never been good at it, and I’ve never really successfully tried, either.

My beliefs inform why I want to tell certain stories.

Motherhood is a big theme with several of your roles, including the Scarlet Witch. What about playing a mother or a woman longing for motherhood fascinates you?

What we do for the people we love, and the sacrifices we make for the people that are most important to us — it’s something that’s incredibly relatable.

In this film, these people are such exceptional scientists, and they believe that they potentially are improving society by having a child. But that really raises the question: Who cares if you’re an exceptional person? Everyone deserves to have the most primal right of being able to parent if that’s what they want. There’s such a variety of reasons why people want it, and it’s no one's business. This allegory of who gets to have the resources is its own thing to reflect on as well.

Does sitting with those characters change the way you think about your own decision on whether to have kids or not? Do you take life lessons or pieces of wisdom with you from your roles?

It doesn’t change how I live my life. I think it’s more that I live my life, and that informs how I play characters. My beliefs inform why I want to tell certain stories. If they’re in dialogue with each other, that’s why I’m drawn to stories that I’m drawn to.

Your character struggles with fitting into the world she inhabits. How did that resonate with you?

[That feeling] comes from this feeling of abandonment that she had from her mother. She chose to blame her mother instead of understanding why she made the choice she made. We all have these moments. Oftentimes, if we can put ourselves in their situation, there might be something much deeper and more complicated about why they make the decisions they make that cause us to reflect more openly and honestly about the choices we make today.

I feel like we’re often very much trapped by our own perspectives.

I had that moment with my grandmother. I wasn’t very close to her growing up because she traveled all the time and wasn’t around. I always felt like she didn’t really care about being a grandparent. Then one Christmas — she’s 94 years old — we end up having this three-hour conversation. It’s just the two of us chatting about her childhood and her life as a single mother of four working in factories to raise everyone. It was very hard, and so at an older age, she met someone, fell in love, and traveled the world. She had a horrible childhood, and hearing it put in that [context], it was this really amazing moment I got to have. It made me realize that I am so much like her: I want to live, I want to travel, I want to explore. The opportunity she got just happened to be later in life, and I’m so grateful that she did that now.

That’s beautiful. You also have a rom-com coming out soon with Miles Teller and Callum Turner. What can you share about it?

It’s a Billy Wilder type of film. It’s old-school and timeless. I’m really excited to share it in the fall. It’s a warm, heartfelt, funny piece that will make people feel good. It’s a special film about how we look back at one’s life, [both] in the end and the entirety of it, not just a moment in time. [It’s a] reflection of the gift of what it is to be alive and who we choose to spend that time with.

I’m really excited for it. I’m here for the rom-com renaissance.

Me too, especially because people are trying to do it in refreshing ways. I think the thing that wasn’t sticking was when it was trying to be too current in culture. You can’t fight how fast culture is moving, so you have to be more inventive.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.