Julia Garner was shocked to realize she was cast as the Silver Surfer in “Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Garner, who plays the female version of the character AKA Shalla-Bal, makes her MCU debut with the franchise reboot prequel. However, after a chaotic meeting with director Matt Shakman that spanned discussions of “Communism, Brutalist architecture,” and more, Garner assumed she missed out on the villain role.
“I was a very big fan of Matt’s, so there was already, in my mind, like, ‘I should probably meet with Matt Shakman because he’s a very smart director and I love his work,’” Garner told Entertainment Weekly, adding that at first she was even “confused” to be in talks for the Silver Surfer as she thought the character was a man (“I’ll play anything”).
Garner continued of Shakman, “He wasn’t telling me a whole bunch about the movie, but we were talking a lot about the 1960s. Our meeting went all over the place, and I thought I wasn’t actually going to get the part because the meeting was all over the place. I was like, ‘I don’t know how he will hire me for this job.’ I mean, we were talking about Communism, Brutalist architecture, all this stuff. And then they were like, ‘You got it.’ I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ So I think that we vibed, but you never know, basically, is what I’m saying.”
That 1960s space race era is also evident in the aesthetics for “First Steps.” Garner shared that the Silver Surfer costume had a retro high fashion quality to it.
“I just thought it was so cool,” she said. “It kind of oddly looked like … well, I don’t want to say fashion-y, but you could totally see it on, I felt like, a runway, which is something I always notice the best. The costume has to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, especially with Marvel. People love that.”
And Garner is also eagerly awaiting the final cut of the film: “At the end of the day, it is a comic book. I’m excited to see it — I really haven’t seen anything besides the trailer and some mockup scenes, so it’s going to be interesting,” she said.
Garner will next star in Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” which is set in the “Barbarian” universe.
