‘I’m going to still do my job’: Julia Garner ignores Fantastic Four casting criticism

Julia Garner is ignoring criticism of her casting in ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ and insisted: “‘I’m just going to still do my job”.

Julia Garner is ignoring criticism of her casting in ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’.

The 31-year-old actress stars as Shalla-Bal / Silver Surfer in the upcoming superhero movie, and although there was initially some online discourse insisting Silver Surfer should be a man, she insisted she is not letting it stop her from giving her best performance.

She told BBC News: “I said, ‘I’m just going to still do my job’. Also, it’s Shalla-Bal, so it’s different.”

Shalla-Bal is the female counterpart to Norrin Radd, who was featured in 2007’s ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.’

In that film, the character was played by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne.

However, the response to Garner’s Surfer was overwhelmingly positive after the first trailer dropped and she said: “I was just happy that people are resonating with it, just like any other project. I’m grateful to be at this dance, to be completely honest with you.”

Meanwhile, Julie previously admitted she hopes to reach a “different kind of audience” with ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ and is thrilled to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Julia told Entertainment Weekly: “She’s so different than anyone I’ve ever played, and that was also another reason why I wanted to do it.

“I don’t expect everybody to watch ‘Ozark’ or ‘Inventing Anna’ or ‘The Assistant’. Some people are only going to watch certain things, so that’s why I want to branch out to every genre, and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do Marvel – it’s reaching a different kind of audience.”

Julia read “a lot of the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics” before she began filming the new movie.

And the actress has relished working on a Marvel project.

Julia – who stars in the movie alongside the likes of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn – said: “When I got presented with this opportunity, I was like, ‘Wait, what? Me?’ Yeah, I was in disbelief, almost because it was so cool.

“I knew who the Silver Surfer was, and I got to know the Silver Surfer more when I signed on to the project. I really dived in. I read a lot of the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics before starting the project, and I knew that this ‘Fantastic Four’ was going to be told in a very different way than even the other movies.”