Jessica Alba recalled shooting a “humiliating” scene in Tim Story’s 2005 Marvel adaptation of “Fantastic Four” while giving an in-depth career talk at the Red Sea Film Festival on Friday. Asked about her memories of the shoot, she said her “least favorite scene” was of character Sue Storm reappearing completely naked over a bridge.
“I thought that was awful,” she said. “It was very humiliating in real life. I grew up with a pretty conservative family, and I am a pretty modest person. I dreaded that scene for weeks. I have a lot of whiplash from those days.”
Still, Alba has fond memories of playing Storm, adding that she “loved” how the character broke gender stereotypes perpetuated in superhero and action films at the time. “She was a woman I looked up to,” she said. “She was very maternal and very kind, but also not a pushover; she spoke her mind. She had a great moral compass. No matter who you are, you can look up to her. Oftentimes, the women in these stories need to be saved by a guy or the villain, the problem in the story. This was back then. It’s different now.”
Asked whether she has watched Vanessa Kirby’s recent interpretation of Sue Storm in “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” Alba said she has not yet been able to watch the film. “I usually watch those movies with my kids, and if ‘Sonic’ was out, my son wants to watch it 85 times in a row. When it comes to movies that are for the family, my kids dominate what we watch for sure. But I have to convince him because we have to see it! I love Marvel, and they’re so fun.”
Alba also announced she is pitching a new film with Robert Rodríguez, whom she worked with on “Sin City” and “Machete.” “We’re putting together a really fun action movie, like a family dramedy inside a heist movie,” she said, adding that the project will feature an all-Latino cast. “We’re pitching that now to studios. It’s going to be really fun.” The actor also mentioned she is working on a project with lauded “Wadjda” Saudi Arabian director Haifaa al-Mansour: “We have something that we’re cooking together, a really tender and beautiful story. It’s a tender story about an aging parent and a daughter.”
Alba also briefly mentioned Dakota Johnson’s upcoming directorial debut “A Tree Is Blue,” in which she is set to star alongside Charli XCX and Johnson’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth” screen partner Vanessa Burghardt. “It’s about a mom and a daughter who wants her independence,” said the actor. “It would be amazing to be able to show it [at Red Sea] next year when it’s finished.”
The actor has recently moved into production by launching her label Lady Metalmark Entertainment. Speaking about the reasoning behind the career move, Alba said her goal is to “change minds” when it comes to diversity on screen. “Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of diversity in storytelling,” she recalled, adding she doesn’t “blame Hollywood.”
“When you have a lot of white guys in charge, they feel most comfortable telling stories through their lens,” she highlighted. “They don’t know you. They didn’t grow up with a woman who grew up like me. Frankly, many of them didn’t have women [in their lives] who were strong, not just running the household but making an income. We still don’t have a lot of female leadership, but as a woman of color, I don’t see the boundaries that they may see.”
The actor-slash-entrepeneur also brought up the fact that women control “over 70% of the household income,” and therefore should be better considered by decision-makers in entertainment. “I believe we need to have entertainment that speaks to us. Just because a woman is a lead and a powerful person who can think for herself, it doesn’t mean it’s not for men. Maybe we should have a little less of women who need to be saved all the time. And in our country in particular, the Latino audience loves entertainment; we watch it more than any other group of people.”
On Latino stories, Alba said they are still “very much defined by a bias” in the United States. “There are a lot of stigmas and stereotypes. They love to tell stories about cartels, drugs, and domestic workers. We are a lot more than that. If that’s the only way they see us, it’s very difficult for them to change their minds. It takes people like me in a position as a producer to support filmmakers who look like me to be able to tell really authentic human stories.”
