Jessica Alba, aka Honey Daniels from my favorite movie in 2003 (next to Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Love Actually), is reflecting on her work in another classic fave.
While attending the Red Sea Film Festival on Dec. 5, Jessica took a trip down memory lane, revealing what it’s like to be a woman in major blockbuster films, and how “humiliating” it was to film one particular scene in the 2005 Marvel superhero classic, Fantastic Four.
In 2005, Jessica was the first live-action Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four alongside Chris Evans (Human Torch), Michael Chiklis (Thing), and Ioan Gruffudd (Mister Fantastic).
In the movie, during a bridge rescue, Sue appeared completely naked while using her superpowers, and it turned out to be Jessica’s least favorite scene to film.
If her floating clothes weren’t embarrassing enough, her love interest/colleague Reed Richards made it worse with his ill-timed compliment.
After Sue called out Reed for his ridiculous comment, her brother Johnny said what the actor Jessica might’ve actually been thinking while filming the scene.
“I thought that was awful,” Jessica told Variety. “It was humilating 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.”
However, the single “embarassing” scene doesn’t detract from the impact of being one of the first major female Marvel superheroes on the big screen, save for Storm (Halle Berry) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) from the 2000s X-Men.
“She was a woman I looked up to. She was very maternal and very kind, but also not a pushover; she spoke her mind,” she continued.
“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,” Jessica said.
Sure, that one scene was ridiculous, but Jessica as Sue overall was definitely iconic, and I’m crossing my fingers that she officially has a cameo in Avengers: Doomsday.
Read the full interview here.