From Rebecca Murray,
Your Guide to Hollywood Movies.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

What was it that the producers and director saw in you that related to your character?
IOAN GRUFFUDD: I’m a mathematical genius (laughter). Gosh, I don’t know.

MICHAEL CHIKLIS: I’m a thug that you want to hide from.

They had so many people to choose from for these roles. Why do you think they chose you?
IOAN GRUFFUDD: I don’t know. I think getting to know each other a little bit today and you getting to see us today, we’re sort of down to earth people. And I think that’s the main attraction of these characters, that they are real people and you can associate with them. They’re just in these incredible situations. I think that’s the main attraction and possibly we’d like to think we’ve been cast because of that.

Did you test together for "Fantastic Four" or did you meet for the first time pretty recently?
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: The latter.

JESSICA ALBA: We [meaning she and Michael] actually met at an award shows. We presented together. And then I met [Ioan] at a hotel bar.

Is that a scandal?
JESSICA ALBA: (Laughing) No, with the director. He was doing press for “King Arthur” and he was in the middle of all his stuff.

I honestly didn’t know that this was going to happen because I so easily get typecast as the kick-ass girl or the hot girl or whatever kind of thing – half-naked in this or that. And this is really who I am. I am a problem solver. I’ve been working since I was 12. I come from a really big family and I’m the oldest of 14 cousins, and we all live in Southern California. So I’ve always had to mediate. And I think when I sat down with Tim [Story], he kind of saw that that’s my nature.

What have they told you so far about the special effects as far as the CG enhancements?
IOAN GRUFFUDD: Nothing much really. I think all the other movies have raised the bar now. “Spider-Man 2” in particular. I have faith that this is going to take it to the next level again.

MICHAEL CHIKLIS: I find it interesting, I don’t know about you but thus far we’ve been kept in the dark about an awful lot of things, and now things are starting to be revealed. I think part of that was because there’s such anticipation and there’s so many people wanting to know early what’s going on that the policy for them, being the studio, has been the fewer people we tell, the less the leaks.

JESSICA ALBA: Even though we’re the cast (laughing).

MICHAEL CHIKLIS: (Laughing) Even though we’re the 'people'. But you know what? It’s a need to know basis. But I’ve been assured many times that the resources are there, they’re going to bring everything to bear. There are going to be some spectacular effects in this.

For my part, I did not want to do this if Ben Grimm was going to be a CGI. If he was going to be done in the way that The Hulk that was done. I felt that I would be wasted. I was assured from the get-go that that wasn’t going to be the case, and I was thrilled. They would use some CGI enhancements in creating nuances, and he told me a couple of ideas that I just thought were so hot sh**. I thought they were awesome.

For an actor, it’s a thrill to be involved in this type of thing. I’ve not done really anything of this scale. Everything I’ve done has been about the acting work, about character development, about people interacting. This is still very much like that, but with a huge scale of technical support around it. That’s what really attracts me to this project from a directorial standpoint. Tim has said from the beginning the technical will support the character development. I think fans will love to hear that, too. That’s a thrill. Often, as we all know with big, huge multi-hundred million dollar pictures, the studio or the director often makes the mistake of rushing to the next explosion. As you all know, if you don’t care about your central characters, you don’t care if they blow up or not. So the idea that the onus will be on the development of this family and that’s why I think personally “Spider-Man 2” is so successful and it’s so good. Well-drawn and well-developed characters and yeah, there’s spectacular effects, but you care about Tobey Maguire and Kirsten [Dunst] getting together. You know, you care about them so they take you on the ride and so those effects are effective.

"FANTASTIC FOUR" CAST INTERVIEWS - CONTINUED ON PAGE 3