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What is Elizabeth Olsen’s wellness ritual? According to her, it’s an unmissable daily habit.
“I journal in the morning,” the actress-producer, 36, tells PEOPLE of self-care she swears by at the Wednesday, Nov. 5 special Los Angeles screening of her new movie Eternity (in theaters Nov. 26). Olsen was joined at the event by her husband Robbie Arnett.
“Sometimes it’s just what happened yesterday,” continues Olsen. “Sometimes it’s about what I’m reading. Sometimes it’s about work. It’s kind of everything.”
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Mostly, journaling each day for the past three years has been “just a way to slow everything down,” she adds. “You slow down your thoughts, I think, when you start writing by hand.”
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For acting projects from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Eternity, “discoveries” often emerge in her writing. “It’s really helpful for work,” she says. “I have three different journals. I have a work journal that’s separate for [creating a] character. And sometimes I have to translate what’s in a personal journal to my work journal.”
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In Eternity, a new romantic fantasy from director and co-writer David Freyne, Olsen plays Joan, a woman who finds herself at the junction of the afterlife in a tricky position. Both her first husband (Callum Turner), who died decades prior, and her second husband of decades (Miles Teller) must convince her to join them on a one-way journey to an eternity of their choosing.
Making the film “brought me back,” Olsen tells PEOPLE, to “the relationships we have with people and how they continue… It made me think about the people in your life that maybe you haven’t seen in 15 years. If you were to run into them, what would that bring out in you that makes you feel so far removed from the woman you became?”
Among Olsen’s upcoming projects is Panic Carefully, costarring Julia Roberts. Eternity, which also stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph, is in theaters Nov. 26.
