#Elizabeth Marvel makes debut in Marvel universe on Hulu’s ‘Helstrom’

Prolific character actor Elizabeth Marvel makes her debut in the Marvel universe in Hulu’s “Helstrom.”

“Finally getting to be in the Marvel universe was awesome,” Marvel, 50 (no relation to the company) tells The Post.

“I have a 14-year-old son who basically started reading comic books when he learned to read,” she says. “So that was a huge bonus, because of course he was extremely excited — and now his friends think I’m cool.”

Premiering Oct. 16, the series follows sibling duo Daimon and Ana Helstrom (played by Tom Austen and Sydney Lemmon), the children of a mysterious serial killer who hunt down the worst of humanity. Marvel plays their mom, Victoria Helstrom, who is institutionalized and possessed by a demon.

“It challenged me creatively, because basically I got to play all of the keys on the piano — the black keys and the white keys,” she says. “On the one hand, I’m this very nurturing mother who suffered extreme trauma. And on the other, I’m this all-powerful demon. So I got to go all over the place with this role. I love the direction that a lot of horror is moving in, because it asks actors to reach these extremely heightened states and deal with these impossible situations yet remain totally honest.
“That’s actor candy — and really hard to pull off.”

To aid her portrayal, Marvel took a deep dive into other actors’ performances involving demonic possession or behavior.

“I’m a huge fan of the horror genre, and the idea of being a part of Marvel’s foray into horror was very exciting to me,” she says. “I did a lot of research… I watched Isabelle Adjani in [1981 movie] ‘Possession,’ I watched Anthony Hopkins in ‘The Silence of the Lambs,’ I watched [2016 South Korean film] ‘The Wailing.’ Also, my character is sort of a compilation of all of the roles in ‘The Exorcist.’ I left little easter eggs in each episode to the different horror films I’m doing a little homage to. So I’ll see if fans pick up on that or not.”

Marvel, who lives in Brooklyn and is married to “The Night Of” star Bill Camp, has appeared in a slew of popular shows and movies, including “House of Cards,” “Homeland,” “Fargo” and films such as “Burn After Reading” “True Grit,” and “Lincoln.” In 2019 she also starred in a  Broadway production of “King Lear” opposite Glenda Jackson and Pedro Pascal.

“I just go where they ask me to go. I don’t have a grand plan but I’m very fortunate because I’ve always been kind of an odd duck and a character actor,” she says. “So the work that I get asked to do is often extremely interesting. I love doing a play and then spending some time on a TV set and hopping into a movie. I’m grateful that I get to move between all three pretty consistently. I enjoy each medium for different reasons.”

Up next, she’ll be in big-screen Western “News of the World” opposite Tom Hanks, currently slated for a Dec. 25 release.

“He was everything people say,” she says about Hanks. “He’s so lovely and hardworking. He absolutely treats everybody the same — the wardrobe people, the craft service people, the actors. That shouldn’t be exceptional, but it is, and it’s awesome with someone of his stature.

“And he has the best stories when you’re waiting for the lights to be set up.”