LONDON – For Vanessa Kirby and Pedro Pascal, playing the main characters in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” required a a creative connection and depth that took work, but paid off during filming. Happy moments, Kirby said with a smile at Pinewood Studios in west London, where most of the new Marvel film was shot. I™ve never felt this much chemistry in a cast. We love each other. It™s like seeing family every day. That connection, especially between Kirby and Pascal ” who play the central Fantastic Four relationship between Reed Richards and Sue Storms” wasn ™t something they left to chance. We met months beforehand, Kirby recalled. We wanted to do this together. We did workshops, we created a bond. Because when you read the comics, you see that they've been through very hard things. And to make it believable, you have to answer the question: why are they still together?

For Pascal, that preparation and the creative team made the difference when it came to preparing a character different from what has been seen in other Fantastic Four films: "Everything comes directly from the comics, from our writers, from Matt Shakman, from Kevin Feige. This version has a very clear identity. I have everything I need to play Reed."

Cosmic science and emotional truths

The film relies on the science behind the transformations of the characters as an avenue to explore deeper human questions.

We really spent a lot of time working on the science behind how human molecules can be traversed by cosmic radiation and how that alters the makeup at the cellular level, Kirby recalled.

So instead of looking at it as, Oh, they have magical superpowers, ™I see it as these characters entering another dimension and returning to our space-time reality with the ability to do things that normal cells can't," she added.

"Facing that within yourself, and trying to reintegrate into reality feeling 'other', completely changes your sense of identity,", she assured.

The English actress explained that each character deals with this change differently: "Johnny externalizes it and goes out with everyone. Sue becomes a 'workaholic'. Reed tries to compensate for his guilt with scientific advances. And my character is just trying to keep everything from falling apart.

Despite the superhero movie setting, the characters maintain their humanity. We come home and everything is thrown away, I brush my teeth barefoot. It's not about being invincible. It's us, but different.

Rewriting the Superheroine Archetype

Kirby also spoke passionately about redefining Sue Storm, acknowledging the sexist stereotypes of classic comics.

"Comics, especially the early ones, of course, are from the '60s," she notes. “We laughed, but it was hard. Lines like, 'I'll buy you a new dress if you stop complaining.'”

“I have days when I face the reality of being pregnant, and then carrying a baby, trying not to fall into the clichés we see in movies about that. It's a daily choice. Even from the first costume fittings, I said: don't put me in doll skirts, don't put me in that. I want to be something else.”

Instead, she sought an honest representation of the feminine: “I want to show what I believe is true femininity—strength from vulnerability, not domination. Not the self-sacrificing mother who waits at home, nor the ‘boss’ relentless™ masculinized. Something deeper.

The actress is grateful to Pascal for his generosity with her and her character.

I've never had a male actor partner who was so completely egalitarian and supportive of the relationship we built between the characters. When you see the woman who is in front of him on screen, it shows, Kirby said alongside her co-star.

I feel so grateful every day to act with someone like Pedro. He is so generous, egoless, so sincere.

What you call generosity, for me it is simply ,Pascal answers. “I'm only inspired by powerful women. They're what's kept me alive. So having the opportunity to be alongside one, to learn from one, or simply to work on equality, is just that: a partnership. It's not man-woman. It's man and woman, yes, but it's also a kind of transcendent collaboration.”

The Weight of the Characters

The Fantastic Four are Marvel’s “first family.” Pascal is aware of the weight these characters carry. Although he has experience with major franchises (The Mandalorian, The Last of Us, Game of Thrones), he assures that the pressure never goes away.

“Every time you think, ‘This can’t get any scarier,’ and then it does, it gets scarier,” he said. “That’s why you hold on to your teammates, to the story, to the material, to working with the best in the industry like here.”

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” introduces us to a new phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the same time, Kirby and Pascal's performances promise not only a fresh take on familiar characters, but also a redefinition of what it truly means to be a superhero in a family.