Elizabeth Olsen once considered changing her name due to concerns about perceived nepotism.
The WandaVision actor opened up about the topic in a new cover interview with Glamour.
Olsen, 32, is the younger sister of twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who both portrayed Michelle Tanner in Full House as children. By the time Elizabeth started thinking about auditioning for roles, her siblings were already famous – something she says she was conscious of even as a child.
“I was 10 and I was curious about auditioning… and I realised very quickly it wasn’t for me because I was missing my sports teams, my dance class and all the extracurricular activities at school. But during that time, I thought ‘I don’t want to be associated with [Mary-Kate and Ashley]’, for some reason,” she told Glamour.
“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.”
She said the feeling “had to do with [her] own insecurities”, and that at the time she thought she would use the name Elizabeth Chase for her acting career.
That plan didn’t end up materialising, and Elizabeth has starred in numerous films under her birth name. She has portrayed Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in several Marvel movies, and reprised the role in the celebrated Disney+ series WandaVision.
She is expected to appear again as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which will be released in March 2022.
