Why Jessica Alba Was Never The Same After Fantastic Four
There were few actors in the early 2000s whose careers were as promising as Jessica Alba's. She started off in Hollywood as a young actor in her early teens before finding her big break as the lead on James Cameron's "Dark Angel." After her role as Max Guevara rocketed her into mainstream success, Alba quickly caught the public's attention as Nancy Callahan in 2005's "Sin City," a film adaptation of the graphic novel by Frank Miller.
It wasn't long before Jessica Alba was a full-fledged movie star, though one particular project turned her from a young up-and-comer to a box office menace. That project was "Fantastic Four," the 2005 Marvel Comics film directed by Tim Story, in which she starred as one of the members of the titular superhero team. Featuring Alba alongside Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, and Michael Chiklis, "Fantastic Four" was the first of many commercial successes for her ... as well as the first of many critical flops.
For better or worse, "Fantastic Four" was a major turning point in the young actress' burgeoning Hollywood superstardom. But while these days most superhero movie actors find themselves basking in star power, Alba's career has taken quite a different trajectory than she might have originally anticipated for herself since being cast in "Fantastic Four."
Jessica Alba was intimidated by Fantastic Four
Jessica Alba was the last main cast member to join "Fantastic Four" in 2004, beating out other actresses in the running that included Elizabeth Banks and Rachel McAdams. However, leading up to the film's production, Alba was worried about her portrayal of the iconic Marvel Comics heroine. During an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con in 2004, Alba shared these concerns, saying, "I just feel I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I turned this movie down. It's such a great story and hopefully everyone will be pleased." (via FandomWire)
It didn't help that, coming off her success on "Dark Angel," Alba was already used to the intense pressure that could be placed on her. Some of her co-stars later complained about the actress' behavior on the set of "Dark Angel," citing the constant stress Alba was facing from the show's network. The pressure was even greater with "Fantastic Four," now that Alba was stepping into the leather boots of a character many Marvel Comics fans cared deeply about.
Among Alba's biggest concerns with playing Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, was her worry that the character would be seen as a sex symbol. This was something Alba had already confronted in Hollywood, later confessing that she felt uncomfortable with her sexuality even well into her career as an actress and model.
Her Sue Storm was a hit among fans
Thankfully, Jessica Alba had nothing to worry about, considering many "Fantastic Four" fans loved her portrayal of Sue Storm. That's likely due to the character's limited portrayal in the comics, which often pigeonholed the Invisible Woman into a love interest for Reed Richards and a mother to their children. While the film still retains her status as a romantic foil for Reed, Sue does have agency, takes action, and is unafraid to call the men on the team out.
Nevertheless, "Fantastic Four" overall wasn't popular among movie critics, which took the film to task for subpar attempts at comedy, lampooned its formulaic plot, and denounced the casting of Alba, a remarkably beautiful woman, as a superhero whose main ability is to turn invisible.
Still, Alba's performance as Sue Storm cemented itself as an iconic superhero portrayal quite early in her career. The actress even found herself nominated against Christian Bale's Batman for best hero at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, as well as being nominated for best on-screen team with her three "Fantastic Four" co-stars. Despite an impressive debut, Alba's future as the Invisible Woman wouldn't always be so bright.
Rise of the Silver Surfer soured the Sue Storm experience
After the box office success of 20th Century Fox's first "Fantastic Four" film, the studio quickly green-lit a sequel, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer." The film was released in 2007, with the entire cast returning, including Jessica Alba as Sue Storm. However, compared to her experience filming the first movie, "Rise of the Silver Surfer" quickly became a breaking point for Alba's then-brief career as an actress.
During the filming of one scene toward the end of the film, Alba was confronted with direction from Tim Story asking her to look "prettier" as her character was crying and about to die. It was a nightmare moment for Alba and her attempts to portray herself as a serious actress. She later explained to Elle magazine (via Today), "It all got me thinking, 'Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough?'" Fortunately, the actress didn't cave to her worst instincts and quit acting, although it crossed her mind.
Nevertheless, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" was still a box office hit, grossing $302 million worldwide over its theatrical run despite critical reviews dropping even lower than the first film's. However, Alba would walk away from the role of Sue Storm forever, the sequel's production having left a poor taste in her mouth.
Alba looks back on Fantastic Four with mixed feelings
By the time Jessica Alba ended her tenure as Sue Storm, she felt different than she had before stepping into the role. Shortly after her time as a member of the Fantastic Four wrapped, she vented about the poor quality of scripts she had received, telling Elle magazine (via Celebitchy), "I know I haven't been swimming in the deep end with some of the movies I've done. I wasn't trying to. I knew what they were." However, the experience on "Fantastic Four" was demoralizing for more reasons.
While Alba has looked back on the experience with some pride, claiming to be happy that she got to be one of the first powerful female superheroes on-screen, in retrospect she was also upset with how she was portrayed as the character. The film's marketing, for instance, took advantage of Alba's sex appeal by pouring her into her tight Fantastic Four costume. Suggestions she made to make her character look dirtier or to de-emphasize Sue's beauty were also ignored by the director.
In more recent years, Alba has more generally criticized the movie-making machine that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe for not being diverse enough. Even though Alba might have some pride left over from her time playing Sue Storm, it seems that she's happy that the job is over.
Alba's sex symbol status remained strong
By the time "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" was released, Jessica Alba was a global icon, though perhaps not for the reasons she initially wanted. For most of the 2000s, Alba was consistently included in lists ranking her as one of the sexiest actresses in Hollywood, and she was featured on the covers of magazines like Maxim, Sports Illustrated, and GQ numerous times. In an interview with Elle magazine, Alba stressed how the constant perception of her as a sex symbol kept resulting in typecasting, saying, "Contrary to how people may feel, I've never used my sexuality. That's not part of it for me."
Nevertheless, it took some real effort from Alba to try to shake off this public image of her as a sex symbol. For one, the actress refused to do nudity in films and would go out of her way to reject roles that would have required her to strip. Though films like "Sin City," in which she played an exotic dancer, made this more common, she emphasized that her interest in that role was due to the complexity of the character.
There were some instances when Alba was forced to take legal action to battle this misaligned public perception of her, such as when she sued Playboy magazine for non-consensually using an image of her from the film "Into the Blue," though she dropped the charges after Playboy founder Hugh Hefner publicly apologized to her.
Rom-coms and studio films became Alba's new home
Following "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," Jessica Alba was desperate to turn away from the superhero flicks for which she had gained mainstream attention. However, she didn't shy away from studio-produced films, becoming a frequent face in box office blockbusters and commercial successes. One such example was "Good Luck Chuck," a 2007 romantic comedy in which she co-starred alongside comedian Dane Cook, though critics felt it was too raunchy and childish to be taken seriously.
In Alba's eyes, that raunchiness wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she signed onto the role. She criticized the set of the film to Elle magazine, describing it as a boys-only club due to the numerous sex scenes filmed by Cook, and went on to say, "It's porn! It wasn't supposed to be like that." However, Cook defended the film and implied that Alba knew what she had signed up for.
Among Alba's other roles in 2007 were "Meet Bill," a comedy co-starring Aaron Eckhart and Logan Lerman, and "Awake," a psychological thriller with Hayden Christensen. For that film, the cast, including Alba, received positive acclaim for their performances from critic Roger Ebert, who praised the movie even though numerous other critics slammed it.
Bad reviews began to plague Jessica Alba's career
Although her days of fighting supernatural enemies in the "Fantastic Four" films were long gone by the end of the 2000s, Jessica Alba had a new enemy to face: bad reviews. The criticism she had encountered throughout her career continued to plague her newer projects, such as 2008's "The Eye," a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong film. The English-language version was lampooned for its weak performances, with Alba's called out specifically by some reviewers for bringing the movie down with it.
That year would also see Alba co-star in "The Love Guru," starring Mike Myers as a guru hired to solve the personal issues plaguing a Canadian hockey team owned by Alba's character. Along with being a box office bomb, "The Love Guru" is often cited as one of the worst films ever made and notably derailed Myers' successful career as a comedy movie star. For both the 2008 films "The Love Guru" and "The Eye," Alba was nominated at the Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards for worst actress.
Fortunately, nowadays, the bad reviews of Alba's career don't seem to have pierced her thick skin. As she claimed on "Hot Ones" in 2020 when discussing her lack of good reviews, "I, for whatever reason, have been on the other side of the burn every time." However, despite these poor reviews, Alba's career peak was yet to come.
In 2010, Jessica Alba was still everywhere
As Alba's career continued into the 2010s, her priorities began to change in terms of the roles she picked. Alba and her husband, Cash Warren, had their first child in 2008, making Alba more selective about which projects would drag her away from motherhood. As she later told Vulture, "If I'm going to be away from her, it needs to be worth it. I don't want to be away from her doing some big silly movie where I'm running around in a leotard shooting people for six months."
In 2010 alone, Alba starred in five incredibly different movies. While films like the ensemble rom-com "Valentine's Day" and the comedy "Little Fockers" allowed Alba to continue to showcase her comedic strengths, other films that year were huge departures for the actress. For example, "The Killer Inside Me" saw her playing a prostitute who begins an affair with a sociopathic small-town deputy played by Casey Affleck. This time around, Alba's performance was praised, but the film overall was criticized for its depiction of violence against women.
Elsewhere, Alba also reunited with Robert Rodriguez for the action film "Machete" and starred in the drama "An Invisible Sign," though by the end of the year, Alba still earned a Razzie nomination for worst actress yet again, this time winning the award.
Alba became a real-life superhero
While her film career continued in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Jessica Alba redirected her focus to something more important than comic book superheroes and Golden Raspberry Awards. Alba first turned to political activism in 2008, supporting Barack Obama's campaign for president, and years later even teamed up with Michelle Obama to advocate for healthier eating. Alba dedicated herself even more to raising awareness for various efforts, though not all of them resulted in good press for her.
In 2011, Alba lobbied in support of the Safe Chemicals Act and returned to Washington D.C. in 2015 to advocate for the 1976 Substances Control Act. Additionally, Alba has been vocally supportive of LGBTQ+ rights, the #MeToo movement, and voter registration among young people.
However, in 2009, Alba's political activism may have gone a step too far when she allegedly vandalized property in Oklahoma City while putting up posters raising awareness for the endangerment of great white sharks. Although Oklahoma City decided not to press charges against Alba, the actress also publicly apologized through People magazine and donated an undisclosed amount of money to the organization United Way.
The Honest Company was a huge pivot for Alba
In recent years Jessica Alba has moved away from full-time acting and instead refocused on a new effort: running a business. In 2012, Alba co-founded The Honest Company with the intent of providing organic household goods and baby care items. According to Forbes, the company was inspired by Alba's experiences as a mother as well as instances of illness during her childhood. After she began researching the ingredients in some day-to-day household items that were irritating her, she thought, "How can this be safe for babies if I'm having this type of reaction?"
The company went public in 2021, valued at over $1.4 billion, and has since expanded its product base to include beauty products, skincare products, and baby clothes. Its products can today be found in Target, Nordstrom, Whole Foods, and Costco, among other department stores. Alba remains heavily involved in The Honest Company's operations, currently serving as chief creative officer and owning 6.5% of its shares.
As the face of the organization, Alba has also fought back against criticism of the company and allegations over the years of The Honest Company using synthetic ingredients in its products. It's a positive use of the work ethic she had and the pressure she placed on herself during the "Dark Angel" and "Fantastic Four" days, with the end result of providing affordable alternatives for parents in search of safe baby products.
Alba reclaimed her leading lady status
As The Honest Company took off throughout the 2010s, Jessica Alba took a step back from acting, appearing in only a few movies and TV shows in minor roles. It wasn't until 2019 that she returned to a lead role, starring in "L.A.'s Finest" on Spectrum Originals. The crime show, which was a spin-off of the "Bad Boys" franchise, saw Alba also taking on the role of executive producer alongside her co-star and fellow lead Gabrielle Union as they played homicide detectives in the LAPD.
For Alba, the choice to return to television after many years of starring in movies seemed like a no-brainer when it came to this particular project. She was especially eager to work with Union, and also revealed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that another big positive was the child-friendly set. During a teacher's strike that shut down LA schools, she recalled, "Some of the crew members just didn't have child care, and we didn't even bat an eye when they were bringing their children to set."
Unfortunately, "L.A.'s Finest" didn't last incredibly long, as it was canceled in 2020 after two seasons. Although the show suffered from mixed reviews, its cancellation might have also been indirectly influenced by protests against police brutality in 2020, which resulted in the 2nd season's premiere being delayed from June of that year to September. Still, it was a great showcase for Alba's still-intact strengths as a leading lady.
Her screen presence merged with her business
The Honest Company remains Alba's ongoing focus rather than her acting career, but recently, she has found a way to combine the two huge parts of her life. The Honest Company is expanding its efforts into reality TV, with Alba co-hosting a new show on The Roku Channel with Lizzy Mathis, titled "Honest Renovations." The show, which premiered in August 2023, sees the two helping new parents build the homes of their dreams.
Part of what makes Alba and Mathis dream collaborators, in their eyes, is the diverse perspectives they each bring to the table. Mathis commented to Forbes, "For Jess to be Latina and for me to be African-American in the renovation space? It's important to us." Though neither of them is an architect or a renovation expert, they still each bring a level of expertise in terms of building the perfect home for raising a family, aligning with The Honest Company's original intent.
As of 2023, Jessica Alba may not be the box office-smashing movie star she once had the potential to become after her "Fantastic Four" days. However, by following her truest passions, she's turned into one of the most respectable businesswomen to emerge from the entertainment space, and she seems to be enjoying her work much more than she was on the set of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."