JESSICA ALBA: (Lauhging) Yeah. I tried mine on. Did you guys try yours?
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: I think one of the most humiliating moments of my life was putting on spandex, personally. It’s always nice when four women pull you into spandex when you’re in jockey shorts. Yeah.
JESSICA ALBA: With the zippers on the inside.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: That was interesting. And the pinching…
JESSICA ALBA: I was so scared of the pinching. She had to use a tool to get my right leg.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: Did they have the fan blowing on you?
IOAN GRUFFUDD: Yeah.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: That causes shrinkage too.
JESSICA ALBA: I had the guys making the costumes kind of looking at me like [imitating a puzzled, questioning appraisal]. I was like, “Is there a problem?” “No, I’m just looking.”
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: That guy prides himself on being a pro, too. He looks at you like you’re a mannequin, not like you’re a person. He’s doing his job.
JESSICA ALBA: Yeah. The costumes are very cool and they are spandex and we do have gloves and boots.
Will the costumes have 4’s on your chests?
JESSICA ALBA: Yes.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: Now, of course, they are also building The Thing deal. Thankfully thus far they’ve spared me a lot of the pre- stuff. They are basically going to pare the process down to about five hours before they try it on me. Right now they are doing it on my life cast. They make it as comfortable as possible. I know if you’re a claustrophobe, it’s a nightmare. Thankfully, I’m not.
JESSICA ALBA: This was really strange for me because I was with a bunch of guys and I was by myself, and it was 8 in the morning. I had this body suit-thing on and they’re like, “So we’re going to put Vaseline all over your body.” I was like, “Oh, okay… Everywhere?” They’re like, “Yeah, everywhere.” So I’m like, “Okay…” And then they got closer and closer to those certain areas that only, you know, certain people are allowed to go (laughter). And they were lubing it up.
Why did they lube you up?
JESSICA ALBA: They have to lube you up before they put the cast thing on so it won’t stick to you.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: The life cast.
JESSICA ALBA: I think they just wanted it so they can build the costume in it. I don’t even know.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: There’s a number of purposes for them. They’re for action figures. They are for the spandex suits, [which] have to fit exactly anatomically correct. And you know a life cast, once they rip it off you in half, put it back together, they pour the liquid cement in there, it dries, they pull it off and they have Jessica Alba’s body exactly. I don’t want to say the other reasons why they wanted to make these things (laughing). No, but I mean these are all practical issues for all of it.
Are you guys ready to see all three of your likenesses in Toys R Us?
JESSICA ALBA: I have never been in Toys R Us, by the way.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: I have been. I have children. [Jessica’s] lived that and I have too with “The Shield” now. They made a bobble-head.
JESSICA ALBA: It’s very strange.
Is it a good likeness?
JESSICA ALBA: I’ve had two of them. One was a very voluptuous and the other one was very masculine, so we’ll see what this one’s like.
Comic book fans are really opinionated and there’s been a lot of speculation on the Internet as to who would be cast and all that. Do any of you ever pay attention to those comments?
JESSICA ALBA: Honestly, I was worried. Absolutely, obviously. But at the end of the day, when this opportunity came I couldn’t say no. 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 I’m going to work my ass off. And hopefully people will be pleased.
Is there anything you’re doing to mentally get prepared to start filming?
JESSICA ALBA: Falling in love with a guy who just won’t tell me his emotions? Yeah, I’m doing that (laughing).
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: You know, I’m re-familiarizing myself with the comics.
JESSICA ALBA: Graphic novels.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: And also, I think we’re all hungry to get up there and see a lot of the nuts and bolts aspect of this. How we’re going to achieve certain things. It’s one thing when you read it in script form and you see it in your mind’s eye. But then you go, “How the f*** are we going to do that?”
JESSICA ALBA: Yeah, especially the first moment when they put their things to use. It’s pretty f***ing – excuse my language – incredible.
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: The thing with me and the Doc going down in the subway. That’s going to be…
JESSICA ALBA: You can’t say things!
What about the coat and the hat? Will you be wearing those?
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: I will be.
What about “It’s clobbering time?”
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: You will hear [in The Thing voice], “It’s clobbering time.” I think that’s about the right pitch.
