Vanessa Kirby has revealed what she learned though filming The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Vanessa Kirby learned “so much about motherhood” through her The Fantastic Four: First Steps character.
The 37-year-old actress plays Sue Storm in the new Marvel movie, and Vanessa – who is expecting her first child with Paul Rabil – has admitted that she learned some important life lessons through her on-screen character.
Asked if she was drawn to Sue’s “powerful” and “capable” character, Vanessa told Variety: “Yes, definitely. And it’s a testament to [director] Matt Shakman’s 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, ‘How can we be as true to what these incredible artists have imagined over the years?’ She always felt like a total mixture of so many things: obviously, deeply maternal and deeply loving and incredibly steady, but also fierce.
“In a way, it taught me so much about motherhood, because that’s what motherhood is. It’s not a passive thing. To give birth, you have to be completely, totally fierce. I’m so happy that you feel that. That’s so moving to me, and all I could have hoped for her.”
Vanessa filmed scenes with real babies, and she “got really attached to them”.
On the other hand, the actress admitted that working with a baby can be “challenging”.
She said: “100 percent 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’t there.
“Also, it’s 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, ‘Am I delivering something so bad that they’re crying at the same moment?’ Babies are the most natural actors in the world.”
Vanessa believes mothers are “everyday superheroes”. However, the makers of the new Marvel movie were determined to avoid falling “into any tropes” about her character.
The movie star said: “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’s not like Sue had to be so tough that she couldn’t also be very gentle. Mothers are honestly warriors, everyday superheroes. We all know that, because we all come from one.”
Vanessa Kirby learned about motherhood through The Fantastic Four
