In I Saw the Light, Elizabeth Olsen plays Audrey Williams, the much-maligned wife of country music legend Hank Williams. Williams was the stereotypical boozing, pill-popping, philandering country singer, and Audrey wanted nothing more than to share the spotlight with her husband.
We spoke with Olsen about playing a real person and taking her considerable singing voice down a few notches to match Audrey’s… unique range. And yes, we spoke about Scarlet Witch, too.
Sony Pictures Classics
Also: Crave Reviews ‘I Saw the Light’ (TIFF 2015)
Crave: How did you get involved in this project? What drew you to the role?
Elizabeth Olsen: I was working on The Avengers in London and I was sent the script. I didn’t know much about Hank Williams. I knew who Hank Williams was but I didn’t know anything about him – like I didn’t even know he died so young. I read the script, and I was in awe of how modern of a story it was. I know people think of the rock star who is married who does drugs and drinks, that is a cliché, but it has happened to someone’s life. I understand it’s a cliché, but it happened. It’s real. It happened a long time ago and [the cliché] is still happening today. They are all authentic stories.
I was fascinated on levels because of that. Then, their marriage was something that I emotionally connected to and responded to. I felt really connected to [Audrey] and I felt really sorry for her. I understood where she was manipulative, where she’s not the best wife or mother or friend, but I also had a lot of empathy for her. If I could have an audience see her flaws and still have empathy for her, that, to me, was success.
It was kind of cut out of the film, but his last marriage [to Billie Jean Jones] was a “sold” event. He was in debt, and he couldn’t tour because he was in pain, so they sold tickets to their rehearsal, and to their wedding. They publicized it on radio, she went around and did talk shows. We had to shorten those bits because that was a whole different chapter [of Hank’s life]. You want to be true to the story, but you can’t keep everything. I thought, “How did that happen in 1952?” That’s like watching the Kardashians get married. It’s crazy to me, like watching the first, ultimate reality show. I thought, “This is such a weird, modern story. I can’t believe all this happened.”
“I understand it’s a cliché, but it happened. It’s real.”
And Audrey, getting divorced and remarried [to Hank Williams] just ten days later.
Yeah! They weren’t together for a really long time, they just never signed the papers. They were young and uneducated and passionate… it’s real!
You had mentioned that there was some stuff regarding Hank’s second wedding that were cut out of the film. Was there anything else, between you and Tom Hiddleston, that was cut out?
Just a couple things, like phone calls. When I watch the movie, I just see the film. I have memories of doing the other pieces, but it all kind of blurs for me. Watching the film, that’s also a weird experience! You get real personal, and it’s for everyone else to judge and hopefully enjoy and connect with and share, but ultimately people judge as well. You put a lot of life into that, so watching it with an audience is a very strange feeling, especially at a film festival.
It’s scary, and you feel like you’re naked. I’ve been naked on screen while in the theater, watching. That’s a different experience! But you really do feel emotionally naked, but no one knows your secrets, so you are protected. No one knows what it was that you were going through [to get to that place in a scene].
Marvel Studios
You do a lot of art-house films, like I Saw The Light, but you also do big-budget flicks like The Avengers. How does your process change when preparing for such different roles?
They are pretty similar, honestly. It is the actual being on set that is very different. I worked with the same dialect coach for both, for Scarlet Witch’s fake, made-up accent, and for Audrey’s 1940s Alabama accent. I love approaching characters with dialect first, because that helps me analyze the script, analyze the intention, as well as just the sounds of the words, trying to figure out if these are the words I should be saying. It’s weaving into script analysis.
Even with Scarlet Witch, I was doing a lot of research! I read as many of the comics that would make sense for the world of the script, and you need to understand what powers they are focusing on in the movies. You try to understand that she has these powers in the comic book, but maybe there is a way that I can weave that in, in case they want to bring it up later. You play in the same way that you would if you had a book you were adapting, or a person.
“Even with Scarlet Witch, I was doing a lot of research!”
When you are playing a real person, how important is it for you to be true to the real person, versus bringing your own sensibilities to the role?
What you have to do, in my mind, in order to be respectful and take responsibility, is do all your work. Do all the research, all the academic work. Read and listen and watch as much as possible. At a certain point you have to trust that you understand that human, and you have connected to that character. You then have to allow yourself to kind of merge.
It’s a really fun feeling when you are doing a scene and you surprise yourself with an impulse and you don’t question it because you feel so connected to that character. That’s when you can forget about the work you have done, because it is already ingrained in you. Tom and I both had that experience, and that is why it was so much fun to work with each other. We could surprise one another, and still live in the world of their marriage.
You are a very talented singer, and Audrey Williams is… not as talented. Was it a challenge to sing “bad,” for lack of a better word?
I’m lucky because I understand what flat and sharp sound like. I grew up singing, I was in musicals, I did private lessons when I was a kid, I love singing. I can hear what things sound like. It almost becomes like paint, where you have all these different colors and you know how to make purple. You are able to say, “Oh, let’s put a little more blue in there.” It’s like, let’s make it a little more flat, or maybe she will crack here. You are just trying to figure out a balance, and it is fun! It’s really playful because it doesn’t have to be something specific. It has to be bad enough that people don’t want her singing with him from a business perspective, and good enough that he doesn’t look like an idiot.
One of Hank Williams’ friends, in a BBC documentary, was saying that Audrey, when they would sing together, would always try to sound louder than he did. So when Audrey is in the honky-tonk in the film, all I remember is wanting to sing louder than Tom! That was my goal. You understand enough of what the relationship was that she had toward singing, and then you just kind of go with it. It was really fun for me.
