{"id":97304,"date":"2025-07-27T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97304\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T17:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T17:56:13","slug":"vanessa-kirby-on-fantastic-four-birth-doctor-doom-scene-and-malice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97304\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanessa Kirby on Fantastic Four Birth, Doctor Doom Scene and Malice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: <\/strong>This story contains major spoilers for \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a>,\u201d now playing in theaters.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ll have to forgive Vanessa Kirby<\/a> if she\u2019s a little tired. After all, she just finished saving humanity from a world-devouring cosmic villain as Sue Storm in \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps,\u201d has been hard at work filming \u201cAvengers: Doomsday\u201d and embarked on a global press tour alongside fellow heroes Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Oh, and she\u2019s done it all while pregnant with her first child.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m lying flat today! I can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve actually managed to like lie flat during the daytime. I haven\u2019t known that for a long time,\u201d she excitedly says over the phone. \u201cI\u2019m lying in bed talking to you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKirby, who rose to fame for her BAFTA-winning performance as Princess Margaret in \u201cThe Crown\u201d before her Oscar-nominated turn in \u201cPieces of a Woman,\u201d isn\u2019t letting the craziness of the Marvel machine dull her gratitude for the opportunity to shed new light on the Invisible Woman.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt certainly taught me about motherhood, and my own motherhood journey. That can\u2019t be a coincidence,\u201d she tells Variety on the day of the film\u2019s release, finally able to unpack the scope of Sue\u2019s journey through the film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFantastic Four\u201d opens with the revelation that Sue is pregnant, and follows the heroic astronaut and her husband Reed Richards as they question if their son will be born with any abnormalities due to their own intergalactic abilities. When Galactus and his herald, Shalla-Bal, express their intent to to devour the earth, Sue and her team travel to space and attempt to change his mind. She eventually gives birth to her son Franklin, and refuses to offer him up as a bargaining chip. When Galactus descends upon earth, she exerts her full powers in an effort to save Franklin, ultimately sacrificing herself \u2014 until the infant manages to revive her.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Kirby unpacks Sue\u2019s most pivotal moments in the film, from her \u201cprimal\u201d birth scene in space to the moment she lays everything on the line to protect her son.<\/p>\n

\t\tInvisible characters are often portrayed as meek and shy. I was so glad to see that wasn\u2019t the case with Sue \u2013 she\u2019s powerful, capable and is immediately established as a leader both within the group and with the public. Was that a key factor that drew you to her?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, definitely. And it\u2019s a testament to Matt Shakman\u2019s vision for her, and wanting to be faithful to the comics. It was such a pleasure to go back and read Sue from 1961. It always felt like, \u201cHow can we be as true to what these incredible artists have imagined over the years?\u201d She always felt like a total mixture of so many things: obviously, deeply maternal and deeply loving and incredibly steady, but also fierce.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a way, it taught me so much about motherhood, because that\u2019s what motherhood is. It\u2019s not a passive thing. To give birth, you have to be completely, totally fierce. I\u2019m so happy that you feel that. That\u2019s so moving to me, and all I could have hoped for her.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tVanessa Kirby as Sue Storm in \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps\u201d
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9Walt Disney Co.\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\t\tYou brought up giving birth, and of course, this film features a memorable scene in which Sue goes into labor in space. What did you think when you first read that in the script, and how did you approach that scene?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI remember reading that going, \u201cThis is so cool that, at the midpoint of the movie, it centers this woman giving birth, and these three kind and loving men supporting her as she\u2019s doing it.\u201d It was so cool to see that a superhero was doing something so primal and so utterly human. I was most excited for that bit. I also did a birth in this this little movie called \u201cPieces of a Woman.\u201d I was so excited to be asked to do it again, and I also wanted to make it different. And then, of course, we were doing it in zero gravity, so that\u2019s its own challenge.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe courage to put this very primal feminine act \u2014 and what it represents that it\u2019s happening intergalactically while they\u2019re in space \u2014 there\u2019s something very metaphorical about it. We had an amazing couple of weeks shooting that sequence in that spaceship. I loved every minute. I lost my voice by the end. You only see a few shots in there, but we did hundreds, just roaring the whole time. I think the crew had to get earplugs by the end. It was a very beautiful thing to shoot. I felt so supported by those actors.<\/p>\n

\t\tAnd it gave us an iconic moment of The Thing cutting the umbilical cord, and holding the baby so gently in his giant hands.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was so moving. It was important to us to have this baby at the center of this family, and for these men being uncles and a father. This baby really is at the heart of the story, and there\u2019s something about this new life that they\u2019re protecting. They\u2019re not just protecting the world. It\u2019s about what this new consciousness represents.<\/p>\n

\t\tWhen shooting with Franklin, how often was it a real baby versus movie magic?\t<\/p>\n

\n\t100% of the film was shot with a real baby. Our lead baby, Ada, a little girl, was just heaven. We had lots of other babies who were acting with us and helping us. We got really attached to them, and they were so part of our journey. It almost became weird if they weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, it\u2019s challenging. The speech that Sue has was a night shoot. It was really late and we were shooting in winter in London, and all the babies cried at exactly the same line. I thought, \u201cAm I delivering something so bad that they\u2019re crying at the same moment?\u201d Babies are the most natural actors in the world.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe beautiful bond Sue shares with Franklin is ultimately what propels her to save the world \u2013 she\u2019s willing to give up her life to defeat Galactus and protect her son. What was it like filming that scene and evoking such a physically exhausting task for her?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was so helpful to know that it was a mother\u2019s rage, and a mother\u2019s love, because it felt animal. I wanted it to feel more primal, rather than just, \u201cI\u2019m trying to defeat this enemy for everybody.\u201d It\u2019s more like, \u201cI\u2019m fighting to save my child.\u201d I wanted to tap into how fierce the feminine is, while knowing that Sue also embodies a very soft femininity as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tSometimes action females can feel invincible. We don\u2019t see the softer sides of them. For Sue, undeniably, since the \u201960s, she felt like this maternal force. I think for all of us and Matt Shakman, it was asking the question of what the maternal feminine is really like. I really hope women like the film, because that\u2019s what I responded to Sue about in the comics so deeply.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tVanessa Kirby as Sue Storm in \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps\u201d
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9Walt Disney Co.\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\t\tIn many ways, the film feels like a love letter to motherhood. Sue delivers a powerful monologue about moving heaven and earth for her son, and it\u2019s what reminds the world of their humanity.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s such a beautiful way to put it. I\u2019m so touched. I really noticed my own apprehensions about playing a pregnant mother, superhero, wife and sister. We were so conscious of trying not to fall into any tropes. It\u2019s not like Sue had to be so tough that she couldn\u2019t also be very gentle. Mothers are honestly warriors, everyday superheroes. We all know that, because we all come from one.<\/p>\n

\t\tYou\u2019re the only member of the Fantastic Four who appears in the mid-credits scene. It was directed by the Russo Brothers during \u201cAvengers: Doomsday\u201d filming and notably features our first glimpse at Doctor Doom \u2013 but we don\u2019t see his face. Was that really Robert Downey Jr. on set with you?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah! Robert\u2019s never not been on set. He\u2019s always there. He is our leader. We call him our Godfather. He\u2019s looked after us. It\u2019s such a joy working with the Russos and him, because they\u2019ve had such deep collaboration for so long.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd it\u2019s been amazing being pregnant and working on \u201cAvengers.\u201d I felt so inspired and so relieved that I\u2019ve been so taken care of. It\u2019s been a really beautiful journey. Robert is just doing incredible work. I\u2019m so excited.<\/p>\n

\t\tYou\u2019ve spoken before about being drawn to Sue\u2019s Malice incarnation. Is that something you\u2019re itching to show in the MCU?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tItching! I\u2019m dying to do Malice. She\u2019s come from a really tough background. She lost her mother in a car crash. Her dad tried to save her mother. He couldn\u2019t. He then spiraled, became an alcoholic, got locked up in prison for murdering a loan shark, and then died. Sue had to become a mother to Johnny. They were orphans. They had to fight for themselves. What I loved about her was that she chose a path that was inherently a positive one. She chose to keep her heart open and to stay warm. The Future Foundation, for me, wasn\u2019t a noble political act, but it seemed to me that it\u2019s Sue\u2019s nature.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was a line within a scene that isn\u2019t in it anymore with Mole Man \u2013 who I absolutely love. I\u2019m so excited that we might get to do more with him if we get to do any more of this, because Paul [Walter Hauser] is amazing. But in it, she said something like, \u201cI could give you an aneurysm if I wanted to in two seconds.\u201d In the comics, Sue uses that threat quite a lot: \u201cI could put a force field in your brain and give you an aneurysm. I could put an air bubble inside of you and kill you in an instant.\u201d These powers are also really lethal and really dangerous. But these four have chosen to unite the global community and be a force for good. But they could also choose to be a force for bad. I love the concept of choice, not just, \u201cOh, we\u2019re superheroes, that\u2019s who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s made this decision, but at her fingertips, she could be lethal. It felt so real to me that somebody that\u2019s trying to be a force for good also has the capacity, like we all do, for the light and the dark.<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs) I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m such a Sue nerd. There was something so allegorical about her. She was called Invisible Girl. Then Psycho-Man comes and disrupts everything, and she has a meeting with her own dark side in Malice. She comes back, and she renames herself Invisible Woman. So she transforms from a girl to a woman. There\u2019s something about meeting the hardest parts of yourself in Malice that felt extremely poignant to me. I\u2019m really hopeful I might be allowed to be Malice at some point for her.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major spoilers for \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps,\u201d now playing in theaters. You\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,14020,67,132,68,56259],"class_list":{"0":"post-97304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-the-fantastic-four-first-steps","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-vanessa-kirby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114926491409606488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}