WandaVision starts off innocently enough before a few cracks start to show. Then, the ball really gets rolling in the second episode when Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) has an extremely strange interaction with the neighborhood's resident queen bee, Dottie (Emma Caulfield).
For a fleeting moment, Dottie seemingly expresses her true feelings toward Wanda, and they were ominous, to say the least.
WANDAVISION Exclusive: Emma Caulfield Talks Reuniting With Jac Schaeffer & Joining The MCU
Speaking with Caulfield earlier this week, she explained the difficulty of pulling off the "I don't believe you" scene, which had a lot more going on behind-the-scenes than you would imagine, as both she and Olsen along with the director and crew had to juggle a variety of elements to ensure everything played out perfectly.
"Tonal shifts were a challenge for sure, there were a lot of tonal shifts in that scene. You’ve got a little bit of horror, different kinds of perspectives and realities shifting, you have camera movements, visual effects, the addition of blood, there are just a lot of things that we had to keep technically perfect before you can really be too concerned with the actual performance, which I was never really quite happy with what I did honestly.
Everyone’s like ‘You did really great!,’ but I was just like ‘ugh’ (makes a face). I wish I had, or I feel like I didn’t quite get that transition right or I felt like I was too - whatever it is, actresses just get in their head or whatever, but watching it, being in it versus what I saw were luckily very different things because what I imagined in my head was godawful, so when I saw it, I was very ‘Oh, that’s so cool!’ Great, I didn’t mess it up. (*laughs*)"
Since her casting remained a secret, Caulfield had the rare opportunity earlier this month to announce her involvement with the series herself, and did so by sharing a behind-the-scenes photo in her '60s costume with all of the special black-and-white makeup on. It sounds like she's holding back a few fun shots for later, including a look at her costume from her favorite era: the '70s.
"I’ve got to share another photo, a photo of me in the ‘70s. I’ve got to do that. That was probably my favorite. I’m just a fan of the ‘70s and ‘80s in general, just clothing-wise, ‘60s somewhat, with the sort of pillbox, that sort of straight look, it’s just a little too conservative or something, like a little bit more hippie-dippie vibe I think, rather than the post-hippie vibe of the super-colorful and crazy. I like the glitter, the sequin, I think that’s so fantastical and I love all that stuff."
As for her preparation to get into character, like her castmates, Caulfield also revisited a number of old sitcoms to get a better feel for the eras they were paying homage to and the performances she would have to emulate in order to make the series feel as authentic as possible, which she admits was a total blast.
"Oh yeah, because we were sort of matching specific shows because we were on the actual sets, on the lots where they shot, so we watched a lot of Bewitched and Dick Van Dyke and Brady Bunch and on and on to get those periods authentically correct. Not just for the period of time they were taking place in but also the sitcom version of that period of time, which was very different.
It was even more heightened, the mannerisms were even more heightened, as in any sitcom now, it’s not exactly reality and every sitcom has its own style, so getting familiar with all that and getting the accent down, the mid-Atlantic accent, and making sure that was fluid. All that stuff took practice and preparation and it was so much fun."
Check out our full video interview - which contains potential minor SPOILERS - with actress Emma Caulfield ("Dottie") below and don't forget to like and subscribe!
Welcome to WandaVision. Coming soon to Disney+. Marvel Studios' captivating new series "WandaVision" stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, and marks the first series from Marvel Studios streaming exclusively on Disney+. The series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.
WandaVision returns with a brand new episode on January 29, exclusively on Disney+