In WandaVisionsecond episode, “Don’t Touch That Dial,” the series begins to show you more about what Westview is like, like Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and his neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) heads to a meeting with other women in the neighborhood to help organize an upcoming talent show.
While Wanda is excited about the idea of acting, her hopes of putting on a show add up a bit when she meets Dottie Jones (Emma Caulfield), a woman portrayed as WandaVisionThe idea of a mid-20th century suburban queen bee that delights in tormenting its housemates. It is during an individual conversation with Dottie that Wanda witnesses it WandaVisionfirst great failures in reality this introduces color into the world in black and white, suggesting that Dottie may have more things going on than her sitcom façade lets through.
When we recently spoke with Caulfield (whose other credits include Buffy the Vampire Slayer i Beverly Hills, 90210) About WandaVision, explained how, although she was not really given as much information to work on the character, her faith in the narrative skills of series creator Jac Schaeffer was all it took to convince her to sign up. As he got to know Dottie better, Caulfield realized that while his character holds secrets, he’s a kind of personality we’re more than used to dealing with.
Charles Pulliam-Moore, io9: When you first started WandaVision, what about Dottie that enlightened you? Because, I guess, there was just so much you were hooked on from the jump.
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Emma Caulfield: Yes, Jac Schaeffer is just a phenomenal writer. I was so happy to work with her Timer, and she and I had wanted to work together again for years since that film, but we hadn’t found the right project. More than anything, I was very excited to say his words again. I always want to do a good job for myself, but with that I wanted to do a good job for her. And for, you know, our captain, Kevin Feige.
io9: What, then, is Jac’s narrative that made you trust him immediately WandaVision?
Caulfield: It makes me proud to work right now. I don’t know what that intangible, magical thing is, but it’s fun, so smart, and so fast. Working on Timer it was one of the highlights of my professional career. I desperately wanted this movie and there was some other actor who usually won me over. In fact, he always did. She was my kryptonite. So when I got it Timer, It was like “yes!” because I had earned kryptonite and it’s really weird to get something I want so much.
io9: Of course.
Caulfield: You know, you get a lot of bad scripts and you end up doing projects that you don’t want to do because you have a mortgage or you’ve set up a certain way of life and you have to keep going. With WandaVision, I thought it was an opportunity for something I love and something that thrilled me.
io9: While everyone who lives on “the show” has been changing from episode to episode, there have been common threads in the type of characters they are. We are introduced to Dottie as this queen bee character, but as the series progresses, what kind of archetype does she embody?
Caulfield: I try to find a way to answer it without giving anything away, but keeping this conversation interesting. Regardless of what the show does in each episode, I’ve always wanted it to have something related or vulnerable that wasn’t obvious to the audience, but that was clear internally.
io9: What was that here?
Caulfield: With Dottie, I wonder “why [is she] threatened by this person? Because [is she] so annoying? And why [doesn’t she] do you trust them? ”Dottie is smarter than her general meanness would allow you to realize, and this general need of hers to hurt the people around her really keeps her shining and eclipses everything else she has.
There’s that brief moment in episode three where he says, “Hey, do these earrings make me look fat?” Funny line. I love it. Jac wrote it. Apparently it can be thrown away, but it’s not at all. There’s no one around at the moment, and Dottie wonders, “How can I stay? I look good, right?” When I was shooting that scene with Dottie’s husband, I remember just before I started filming, I left. I nodded and whispered, “By the way, I’ve never loved you” and then someone yells “action” and my scene partner has this brief moment of confusion. Bbut that was just for me. At that point, Dottie is equally trapped within the boundaries of Wanda’s world in Westview. She is playing a role, but she still needs approval on some level and it bothers her.
io9: Because of the roles you’ve played, you have connections with some of the biggest fans of the larger pop cultural landscape. Overall, what kind of biggest changes have you seen in the tone and temperature of the fans?
Caulfield: When I started, there was no presence on social media, and you could really do your job without repercussions. The only people you really had to worry about were on the net and if they would keep you. You really didn’t have as much interaction or assistance with the fans, and the comments were delayed a lot more. In fact, you may grab a magazine and read something weeks later, as opposed to this immediate feedback loop of love, cancellation, and shipping.
io9: correct.
Caulfield: [laughing] I think I find myself very lucky to have done a lot of work without the burden of having to make sure I don’t slip. Somehow, it’s like being constantly with a lot of Dotties, you know, because there’s always the worry of having to get things right because if you don’t, the Dotties could fall on me forever like “get rid of of her. ”Having this fan base built into Marvel is amazing, but again, I really hope to do a good job, because I don’t really need fans trying to kill me.
WandaVision is now ready for Disney +.
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