2005's Fantastic Four may not be a film Marvel fans-or superhero fans in general-want
to remember, but it exists whether they like it or not.
2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer didn't do much to improve upon its predecessor,
and 2015's reboot Fantastic Four unfortunately followed that same downward trend. With another
Fantastic Four reboot on the way, fans can only hope that another film starring Marvel's First
Family doesn't go the way of the Negative Zone. Part of what could make that happen is having
the actors and director work well together, which was not the case for Rise of the Silver
Surfer. Indeed, Jessica Alba-who played Susan Storm, aka the Invisible Woman-didn't exactly
get along with director Tim Story. Alba had such an unsavory time filming Rise of the Silver Surfer
that one particularly difficult scene nearly made her say goodbye to acting for good.
For a bit of context, Alba hasn't always been on the best terms with screenwriters, being quoted in
Elle magazine's December 2010 issue as saying, "Good actors never use the script unless it's
amazing writing. All the good actors I've worked with, they all say whatever they want to say."
This caught the attention of many writers in Hollywood-most notably Charlie's Angels scribe
John August, who wrote a blog post in an attempt to explain why Alba's comments were hurtful and,
quote, "setting dangerous expectations." According to Alba, that quote was taken out of
context, as she explained during a press event for 2010's Little Fockers. It's not that Alba thinks
scripts don't matter-it's that she personally feels she doesn't know how to not be tied to a
script and to improvise when needed, which she apparently considers the mark of a good actor.
Alba went on to say, "Basically, I was saying that I didn't have
the courage and didn't really understand how to bring my own thing to the table and I would never
veer away from the script, ever, no matter what." This confession from Alba ties into her experience
on Rise of the Silver Surfer. She reportedly had a number of "experiences where she was told to
read the words on the page" in the exact way they were written; that made her lose
confidence in herself and her acting abilities. "It's
nice to be wanted sometimes, Reed." During one of the emotional climaxes in Rise
of the Silver Surfer, Alba's character, Sue, is crying as she dies in her husband Reed Richards'
arms. But the sequence seen on the big screen and the way it was originally shot are completely
different. Alba acted out the crying scene, perhaps the way it was written in the script,
but it wasn't what the director wanted. According to Alba, Story told her to quote
"be prettier" during the scene. Alba explained to Elle magazine,
"I remember when I was dying in Silver Surfer... The director was like, 'It looks too real.
It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica, [...] Just
make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" A director critiquing an actor’s work and
asking for some degree of adjustment is one thing, but to take advantage of her looks rather than her
emotional range and say animators will digitally modify her performance? It's hard to imagine what
that felt like. At the time, the experience made Alba question not only her worth as an actor,
but also her worth as a human being. As she told Elle,
"It all got me thinking, Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough?
Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person?"
From there, Alba began to feel differently about the acting profession as a whole:
"I just said, 'F--- it. I don't care about this business anymore.'"
Thankfully, she didn't end up quitting acting, explaining to Elle that motherhood gave her a
thicker skin and helped her become more confident in the face of criticism.
Since the release of Rise of the Silver Surfer in June 2007, Alba married Cash Warren,
whom she met in 2004 while filming Fantastic Four, became a mother of three, and has been in numerous
films and TV shows. Some of her most notable roles include Cam Wexler in Good Luck Chuck,
Nancy Callahan in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and Victoria Knox in Barely Lethal. And from 2019
to 2020, Alba held a main role as Nancy McKenna in the Bad Boys spin-off series L.A.'s Finest.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer may have pushed Alba to nearly quit acting, but we're glad
she didn't let the tough time dull her shine. Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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