Jessica Alba

Spotlight By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

*Click here for our interview with Jessica Alba for the FIRST Fantastic Four!

*Click here for yet ANOTHER interview with Jessica Alba!

Jessica Alba, of course, is the smoking hot young star of such films as Sin City, and is now starring in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, co-starring Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis. That much you know. She got her big break by nabbing the lead role in James Cameron's television series Dark Angel. You might also know that. But did you know her first movie role was in the Christopher Lloyd classic Camp Nowhere' (Thanks, IMDb!)

With all seriousness, though, there are layers to Alba suggesting she's not just another pretty face. For one thing, she identifies heavily with the character she plays in both Fantastic Four movies, Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman. "I think I like being Sue. I thought Johnny's ability of flying might be the coolest one, but I like Sue's powers," she says. "I like how she's all about protecting people, and encapsulating them in these protective bubbles, you know, the force fields. I dig that."

She admires Sue's progression from the first movie to the second. "Sue Storm in the first film was quite misunderstood. And because it was an origin film, a lot of it was her trying to speak up, and be heard amongst all these men. And she would go invisible when she got frustrated, and she didn't really have control over her emotions. And in the second film, she's been in her relationship for two years, she's grown up a bit, she's more comfortable with her powers, and just more at ease with herself. And more evolved as a person. Her struggles are about being a working woman, a superhero, a scientist, or being a family woman, and getting married, and she's trying to find a balance."

Here's another thing you wouldn't expect: she's fond of comic book fans. Calm down geeks; don't start trying to find her number just yet. But she does admire their passion for their superheroes. "I have to say, I am very, very grateful to the comic book fans. Because they are loyal, and they stand by us. They are your harshest critics, but they are your biggest supporters, and they've been nothing but completely supportive of us." (Apparently she chooses to ignore some of the nastier geek websites.) "So it's nice, it's really, really great'hopefully through their loyalty we get to do this again."

In this flick, of course, the focus is on a new arrival: the Silver Surfer himself. Over the course of the film, Sue forges the strongest bond with him. "The Silver Surfer is really interesting," she says, "because he's so misunderstood, and I love that my character has a connection with him, because she's maternal, and she has great instincts. And certainly, feminine instincts. You know, the boys are so 'rah!' and so ready to fight, and pass judgment when they feel like something is threatening, whereas Sue kind of tries to look past every situation, and see something beyond the obvious. That's something that's really cool about this movie, for my character, but also for the way I relate to the Silver Surfer."

One final thing you might not know about Alba: she's next co-starring in an offbeat indie movie called The Ten, a comedy about following the ten commandments. The large cast includes Paul Rudd and Liev Schreiber. After that it's Good Luck Chuck, a high-concept romantic comedy with Dane Cook.

For now, she's able to summarize everything you'll love about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in a few seconds, which is all the more impressive in that it sounds unrehearsed: "Well the first film we did a lot of setup, how we became the Fantastic Four, and all that. This time we just hit the ground running. In the first five minutes of the film we have action, we have amazing special effects, you get right into the thick of the storyline, us planning our wedding and all of that anxiety that comes with that. It's really quite lighthearted, and it's really great for a family; there's nothing vulgar, there's nothing incredibly violent. It's a really feel-good popcorn movie."