Elizabeth Olsen is used to playing villainous women. As Marvel's resident witch Wanda Maximoff, Olsen gave fire and brimstone an intoxicating appeal in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But when it came to playing infamous Texas axe murderer Candy Montgomery in Max's seven-episode limited series Love & Death, Olsen led with, well, sympathy — or something like it. Warning: Spoilers ahead for all seven episodes of 'Love & Death.'
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"I oddly think we made the show she would want to have made," Olsen told The Hollywood Reporter of Love & Death's intimate look at Montgomery's life psyche. "We really defend her, without trying to let her completely off the hook. But we are telling, I think, her story."
Elizabeth Olsen as Candy Montgomery in Love & Death. (Max)
And her story is a gruesome one. In 1980, Texas housewife Candy Montgomery murdered her friend and neighbor Betty Gore (played by Lily Rabe) with an axe after carrying out an affair with Betty's husband Allan Gore (the always-excellent Jesse Plemons). Written by TV veteran David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies), Love & Death retells the tragedy in the church community of Wylie, Texas, and how Candy was ultimately found not guilty in a jury trial.
While the true-crime series recognized the tragedy of Betty Gore's death, Olsen says, Love & Death aimed to tell Candy's story above all, focusing on the traumas and disappointments that caused her to snap.
"Something really tragic happened and we don't want to excuse or negate that in any way," Olsen clarified. "But I think the exercise we are doing is: How do we tell someone's story and still understand how their lives led to that moment? And have a bit of understanding behind someone's choices where we would normally leap to judgment, without having had this experience of the show."
The Montgomerys and the Gores in Love & Death. (Jake Giles Netter/Max)
In the years since the headline-making trial, Candy Montgomery, now in her 70s, has largely kept her silence. Love & Death takes a magnifying glass to her life and legacy, but the team behind the series chose not to solicit her input on the show.
"I knew that she didn't want that, and I really have a respect for someone who draws such a hard line after such a national story to have never done an interview after-the-fact," Olsen told THR, adding, "I can appreciate why someone would want their anonymity and privacy, even though we're invading it by making the show."
All seven episodes of Love & Death are now streaming on Max (previously HBO Max).
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