Elizabeth Olsen interview with The Assessment cast

ahead I'm Elizabeth Olsen I want let say aanda yes you guys are yes I'm Fair fortunate I'm Himes Patel no one beats her name though flower for honestly I saw that and I thought that can't be her her real name my real name but everyone asks me though everyone ask you for name is like the the Blessed it's like what a great what a great way to go through life um so the is this very interesting and and dark look at Womanhood and what the future looks like potentially for women as we are in this very dark period for women where we're we are losing rights around the world and the assessment takes us into a a dystopian future where women are have to get permission or couples have to get permission to uh from the state to get pregnant um this is uh a very uh I would say you know extreme look at where where Society might go I think this this the the project started with you Elizabeth is that right that no it's I mean Flur had been trying to get this made for about five years before I came on uh yeah we we developed the the script for four years years yeah for four years and I always thought that it was very interesting the the yeah that question of uh how many people today wants to control woman's body and control whether we should or shouldn't have have kids and regarding the fact that we are kind of destroying the planet where they going to live so there's a lot of paradox in our world that I think like totally relate to to that movie so Elizabeth you you read the script you thought I want to do this yeah I um I felt like it was such a uh beautiful different uh quiet in a way version of a future uh dystopia and I loved the the themes that we talk about but I also loved the potential for this ABS there's a lot of absurd humor and situations in the film I think the setup of the film is kind of an is is absurd in a way um and not to give things away but there you know that's kind of a spoiler but it's there's a lot of humor in it with how we handle it but the humor makes it even more disturbing um and so I think tonally there are many reasons why I was excited and I also um if fur's previous work is unbelievable and um visually how she works as a filmmaker um I felt so excited to participate in her first feature um because I just I I can't wait for what else she will bring well the film is is quite gorgeous actually to look at um so I know exactly what you mean and um I want to refer back to the sort of Comedy that you're talking about because the film opens with this conversation between you and him ases who plays your husband you guys are a married couple and Alicia who shows up as the assessor who's interviewing you uh about whether you know how you're going to pass this test as to whether you get to have a baby Alicia talk about when you got the script and you read this you know kind of what was your your mental process about can I do I want to be this person uh I mean we know you you're not that person yeah see no no uh I mean I I think the first thing that happened when I I read the script it was just you know you Le read a lot of scripts and it's kind of rare for me you know because it's it's not the finished products you know it's it's script still but I just it was a page Turner I did not know what was going to happen next and for a script to already you know at that stage bring me in like it did um made me you know very excited about you know what this could turn out on the screen uh and alongside with Flur I had also seen you know I've been like going through all of our work and I too was so excited to see what she was going to do with it and then obviously the role of the assessor is you know that is bit of the mystery it's like you are trying to kind of figure out what she is about to do next what she's really up to what she's putting this poor couple through um and you know um that was definitely uh you know unknowns to how I would tackle that character there was a lot of ways to go I mean it was kind of I was I was very nervous to be honest the first day I came on set and it felt like everyone if they had the same feeling like I had when I read it it was like what is this going to turn up to be like you know yeah well to say that the movie takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns that you start from a really unexpected place and it just continues to go down some like rabbit hole of really kind of crazy ideas but I do want to pull it back to like you you are two uh women in the prime of like when you would be thinking about having children yourselves in real life and living in this world where we're seeing these cultural battles over women's bodies and who's going to control them um 50 years after this has been decided right how do you feel like it was important to make make a statement uh about how dire the situation can become and we have the handmaid still we talk about the handmaids tale all the time because Margaret Atwood already projected this terrible World in some way for us in in a different format but how is it for you sort of is it how present is it for you as an issue in your mind I think it's incredibly present when you live in the United States as an issue in your mind um however I would say that reading this script I didn't actually think that the film's totality is just about controlling women it was about controlling people and controlling the planet and controlling the environment um controlling what we are allowed to do taking away individual freedoms in order to create a a place where we can continue living for generations and longer I mean it's also there you know these there's a goal to to you know continue to to live for as long as we can but that means there's not as much space and room for the next generation and so there's it's yes that's important but there are also other elements that are also important in the world that we've that we've built I believe I mean I don't want to I I think so anyhow I think it's I think it's larger than just uh controlling women's bodies I think the film is about control versus people versus individual freedoms it's a great Point Elisa what's your thought on that uh that was a great answer I very much agree uh but I I mean I was I was actually four months pregnant when I was shooting the film are you kidding oh my goodness it was kind of this extra lay to this very particular story having that like kind of life so just just to draw a clear line for our viewers while you're playing a role where you are torturing this couple in supposedly making a final decision as to whether they're allowed to have a baby yeah you're pregnant I had yeah baby um so that I mean it definitely and also I mean all the hormones and you know what I kind of went through you know between takes um kind of you know obviously brought a lot you know um to yeah to it and it became I I did definitely have like a quite profound emotional like balance to uh how I portray that character due to that I think that's an that is pretty amazing Flur do you have a thought about this also since it's since you're the director I think there's a lot of topics in the film as Elizabeth said that is like control about like Society trying to control us like what we are willing to sacrifice if we want everyone wants so much for us to to have kids but it's actually a hard decision a hard process I've been through years of IVF it's not like an easy thing and at the same time we are kind of not making the right sacrifice for the planet so there's all of this and I think it's all those topics it's very there was a a lot of heart I think when we are were on set for everyone and for all the cast because at some point it's like it it yeah it resonate within you like emotionally so I remember we did the first like uh the the first three of us and we were crying at yeah I mean at what when was this when it was before like when we were like prepping and um I want we wanted to do a zoom to together to talk about oh my gosh yeah that oh before we even got there yeah well there's a lot going on in everyone's lives at that point and I knew at that point I was like I think we can do something good yeah and it's and I and I truly believe like whether you you want or you don't want to have kids or or like it's not it's not the matter in a certain way but I I think like on many levels like it's it would resonates within people whether what it's about environment it's about like Society it's about like a couple already having kids are wanting to have kids is like there's many levels in the and layers in the in the film that's really amazing thank you so hamesh you're you're the odd man out here in the sense that you're surrounded by a lot of women with with their you know needs and their demands and their points of view and you're this very loving husband in the film who just wants child you know um you also have this very cool AI Studio which is pretty wild talk about how that was for you in terms of like situating your character in this drama uh it was awful I had the worst time no um it was it a wonderful character and a lot of we spent time a lot of time talking about who he is and what the assessor sort of latches onto and manipulates within him um because he has a lot of you know pain from his experiences before and so I had a lot of thoughts about what that's what that's turned him into necessarily like you know I think he wants to be a good person but he also has um an arrogance he has a an ego that I think is manipulated to some degree and um you know I think yeah he wants he wants a child of course that's why they're going through this process but he also has a past and that sort of slowly reveals itself as we go through the story and and it just adds to the sort of complexity of the relationship between the three of them but also the complexity within this marriage and and you know where the story ends up going so there was a lot of wonderful stuff with playing Arian and uh and I had I had a great time thank you so much for coming good luck with the assessment Elizabeth mesh uh we can't wait to see that you share this with the world thank you thank you thank you thank you