In 2012, fresh off the success of his indie superhero venture Chronicle, wunderkind director Josh Trank was brought on board to direct Fox’s reboot of Fantastic Four. Trank’s version of the film was released in 2015 to poor reviews and even poorer box-office performance. In an interview with Collider, Kate Mara, who played the role of Sue Storm aka The Invisible Woman, explained why she agreed to do the film despite the conditions surrounding her work being far from ideal.
“Because it was such a big movie and again, usually, except in this case, when you’re in a big superhero movie they usually do incredibly well, like almost always. So even if it’s challenging, or this or that, or not everything’s perfect, it’s probably good for you to do it. That was sort of what I was being told and also was telling myself. And I don’t regret doing it at all, but do regret not having stood up for myself. I regret that for sure. Because if my daughter ended up acting and was in a situation like that where she felt like she couldn’t speak up – meanwhile, I’m a pretty tough person and I really do advocate for myself. Granted, this was a few years ago and maybe this situation was different, but if I was in that situation today, it just wouldn’t have happened or it just would have been a different environment I think. So again, good learning experience, you know?”
Over the years, the rumors and legends surrounding the making of Trank’s Fantastic Four have gained far more prominence online than the movie itself. According to various accounts, the studio was meddling heavily in the production of the film. Trank himself was moody and closed off from his crew, and the actors were dealing with their own issues, particularly Michael B. Jordan, who had come under intense online backlash for playing a race-swapped version of Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch.
This is not the only time Kate Mara has come forward to explain why her experience on Fantastic Four was so disappointing. Last month, in an interview regarding her new miniseries A Teacher, the actress had touched upon her time making the superhero movie, and her belief that her gender had a big role to play in why she had such a difficult time on sets.
“I had a horrible experience on Fantastic Four. I’ve never talked about it before. I married one of my costars, so I don’t regret doing that movie at all . But do I wish I had responded differently to certain things? Yes, definitely. The fact of the matter is that my two horrendous experiences with directors were male directors. Have I not gotten along with a female director? Absolutely. And was it not the greatest work experience? Sure. But there was never a time that I felt, ‘This is happening because I’m a woman.’ With the male directors, it 100 percent was only happening with me; it was a power dynamic thing. And on both of my bad experiences, the movies were 95 percent men and I was the only woman in the movie.”
This news originated at Collider with additional reporting coming from Emmys.com.