There was a lot of talk about death Wednesday night at the premiere of *Eternity*, A24’s new romantic dramedy starring Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller—and for good reason.
Olsen plays a woman who has died and must decide where she’d like to spend eternity and with whom: either with her first husband (Callum Turner), who died in the Korean War, or her second (Teller), whom she was married to for more than 60 years.
Olsen told me she has been imagining what it will be like when she leaves this Earth for quite some time.
“I’ve had this kind of plotted out from a very young age,” she said. “When I was in high school, I dreamt of being a very old lady on the coast of England, alone actually. I might have had an animal, and it would be like foggy and wet and kind of cold, and I would go on long walks and I would be in a small town that had like one of each thing you need—like one bakery, one coffee shop, one fishmonger, one cheese shop, one community center, one theater. It was always just me because I like meeting new people and I like being a part of a community, and I always imagined I would die alone.”
Alone? “I don’t know what to do with that, but that was part of my dream,” Olsen said with a laugh.
Miles Teller hopes he’s reunited with late friends and family members he never got to meet. He also wants to keep things simple.
“I guess it would be, like, cul-de-sac eternity, where I had a house and my family had a house,” he said, adding, “Maybe somebody has a pool, but you never have to dry off.”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays an AC (Afterlife Counselor) in the film, would like to be pampered when she departs.
“Like luxury resort, men are my servants,” the Oscar winner said.
Which dead men would she like to have at her beck and call?
“Cute ones,” she replied. “Hmm, I’m trying to think. I would like to hang out with Cary Grant. I wouldn’t make him a servant, but I would make him, like, an escort—a paid escort—to hang out and have a good time. He was so dreamy.”
One of Randolph’s fellow ACs is played by John Early.
“In some ways, I want a Studio 54 where I could just dance, but I don’t want to be that drunk,” he said. “I would want the dancing of that, but I would want it to take place in the mountains. I would want a little cabin where I could also dance when I wanted to.”
*Eternity* is directed and co-written by David Freyne.
“It’s a really fun world to live in for a year or two,” Freyne said. “You get to discuss what’s important to you—love, what makes you happy, and your idea of happiness. We spent most of our lunches and evenings discussing what eternity we would choose or what relationship we would go with. It wasn’t deep and philosophical, but we spoke about these things a lot.”
*Eternity* is in theaters November 26.
https://variety.com/2025/film/columns/eternity-elizabeth-olsen-death-afterlife-die-alone-1236571331/
