Elizabeth Olsen is best known for playing Wanda Maximoff (also known as the Scarlet Witch) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including in the new Disney+ TV series WandaVision.
Despite her worldwide prominence, audiences are still surprised by interesting facts from Olsen’s life. For instance, many fans were recently shocked when they finally made the connection that Olsen is the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
And now, fans are wondering: What hand does Olsen use to eat and write?
“The Internet didn’t know Elizabeth Olsen is related to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen,” proclaimed US Weekly in February 2021. However, Olsen attributes much of her career success to her older twin sisters.
“Nepotism is a thing and I’m very aware of it,” the younger Olsen told People magazine recently, with the publication saying that she was very “conscious of her sisters’ fame and influence when she first started auditioning in Hollywood.”
IMDB reports that Olsen’s first acting stints were in her sisters’ movies, but soon she was landing lead TV and movie roles of her own. “Olsen’s breakout role came in 2011, when she appeared in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene,” explains IMDB. “The film, along with Olsen’s performance, received critical acclaim.”
Shortly after, she appeared in 2011’s horror blockbuster Silent House, as well as numerous Marvel movies beginning with 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. “Olsen has continued to forge ahead with her screen career in a major way,” reports Biography.com.
To date, she’s been nominated for numerous awards, including Critics’ Choice Television Awards, Teen Choice Awards, and multiple independent film awards (e.g., “Best Actress” by the Chicago Film Critics Association, “Hollywood Rising Star Award” from the Deauville American Film Festival, and “Best Breakthrough Performance” from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists).
Olsen’s career and background have long intrigued her fans. Besides being shocked that she was the younger sibling of the Olsen twins, fans have also wondered about Olsen’s private life, habits, and even whether she’s right-handed or left-handed. Olsen finally put that question to rest in a YouTube interview with Wired.
“No [I’m not left-handed,” she said, “but thank you for thinking I’m one of those gifted, more creative people.”
It makes sense that some people wondered if Olsen favored her left hand, since being left-handed is often associated with the creative arts.
“Nearly 40 years ago, a researcher from the University of Virginia in the United States tested whether left-handers, out of necessity of living in a right-handed world, were more creative,” explains Macquarie University. “This study suggested that they were. Specifically, left-handers were found to be more fluent, flexible, original and elaborate when drawing pictures and answering questions, giving explanations, imagining consequences, and coming up with different uses for objects.”
While not left-handed, Olsen has still demonstrated her own creative skills throughout her right-handed career. And the celebrity might also have dodged a proverbial bullet. According to studies and research reported on by the New York Times, people who are left-handed have shorter lifespans than those who use their right hands.
“Left-handed people tend to live significantly shorter lives than right-handers, perhaps because they face more perils in a world dominated by the right-handed, according to new research,” explains the Times.