One of the more surprising things about Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney over alleged lost revenue on account of the studio moving “Black Widow” to Disney+ is that few of her Marvel Cinematic Universe costars have publicly backed her (or maybe not, if they want to keep their own options open). Well, now one more or less has Elizabeth Olsen, star of this year’s Disney+ Marvel hit “WandaVision.”
In an interview alongside Jason Sudeikis for Vanity Fair (via Uproxx), Olsen said she thought “Good for you,” regarding Johansson’s suit. “I think she’s so tough and literally when I read that I was like, ‘good for you Scarlett,’” she said. Sudeikis offered his own support for the suit, saying it was “appropriately bad-ass and on-brand” for Johansson.
Instead of leaving it there, Olsen continued by sharing some fears she has for the streaming future. After all, VF’s article is literally titled “Elizabeth Olsen and Jason Sudeikis Bring Their Characters to Streaming, With Only a Little Trepidation.”
She says, “I’m worried about a bunch of things. Not worried on Scarlett’s behalf. But I’m worried about small movies getting the opportunity to be seen in theaters. That was already a thing pre-COVID. I like going to the movies and I don’t necessarily want to see only an Oscar contender or a blockbuster. I would like to see art films and art house theaters. And so I do worry about that, and people having to keep these theaters alive. And I don’t know how financially that works for these theaters. I do hope that there’s some sort of solution that the larger companies are coming together to keep, at least in L.A. this is going to happen.”
That Olsen and Sudeikis were having this discussion is fitting, considering that they starred together in the small 2017 TIFF selection “Kodachrome,” which was picked up for distribution by Netflix. That’s a perfect example of a film that could use arthouses to build word of mouth, while a streaming release could result in it getting lost in a sea of content. On the other hand, without a streamer’s support, it’s much harder to get a small film like that made in the first place.