Elizabeth Olsen is explaining why she didn’t walk at her college graduation ceremony.

In a recent video interview with InStyle to promote her upcoming movie Eternity, Olsen, 36, shared a brief memory of her time attending New York University as she unpacked various items from her carry-on bag.

“So the first glaring thing is this horrible color — this NYU hat because I went to NYU,” Olsen said, as she pulled a purple ball cap from the bag. “I was supposed to graduate in 2011 but I started working and so I graduated in 2013. I did not attend graduation because I didn’t know anyone who was graduating that year. But I really loved the Atlantic Theatre Company, where I went to school for acting.”

Olsen began acting for the screen as early as 2011. She made her film debuts with movies like Silent House, Martha Marcy May Marlene and Peace, Love & Misunderstanding and her career took off from there. As the younger sister of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, Elizabeth — who did appear in a couple of television episodes in the mid-1990s as a child — was already known by her peers when she began attending NYU, as she told Wonderland magazine in 2012.

“That happened a couple times,” she said, when the magazine asked her about students knocking on her door just to see her. “They would say, ‘We heard there was a party here.’ Or they’d ask if someone lived there. And I knew everyone on the floor, and I’d be like ‘no…’ It was really weird,” she said. “I grew up with the same kids for the majority of my lives. Growing up in L.A. you’re jaded by what everybody else’s parents do, and you don’t really think about that as a sight to see. It was my first experience as that.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

At that time, Olsen told Wonderland that her college experience was “terrifying,” in large part because it was the first time she attended a new school since she was a child.

“I went to the same school from when I was 5 to 18, so going to a college was terrifying,” she said at the time. “I didn’t have a friend! Not anyone going to the particular part of NYU I was going to, and that was horrifying.”

Olsen’s new movie Eternity is in limited theaters Nov. 14 and begins playing everywhere Nov. 26.