Rumors of Vanessa Kirby’s superhero casting prospects have been greatly exaggerated, she says, but there’s one story that she was flattered just to hear about herself. Kirby is currently promoting her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps — in theaters on Friday, July 25th — but in recent years, numerous reports have claimed she was in the running for other roles in Marvel, DC, and other comic book adaptations. Kirby downplayed these stories in a new interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on Thursday, though she didn’t deny them entirely. She said that it would have been “a dream” to play Catwoman in The Batman, but she could not say enough good things about Zoë Kravitz, who actually took the role.
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Judging by rumors among reporters and fans in recent years, Kirby has been a contender for many of the biggest superhero roles of the 2020s, and to some extent, that may be true. However, when asked if she had “been up for” many other comic book movie roles before First Steps, she said, “Not literally, no. I never auditioned for them.” Kirby didn’t elaborate on how close she came to these roles, or whether she had any talks with directors or studios, but she did zero in on Catwoman right away.
“Catwoman — oh my god, what a dream,” she said, “and Zoë was just the coolest ever. She couldn’t have been more perfect.” When asked if that the kind of role where she was on a short list of possible stars, she confirmed, “Yeah,” but returned to Kravitz, adding, “I think it was always going to be her. She’s just the most incredible actor. Most beautiful ever.”
As for the other prominent DC Comics project she was associated with in rumors, Kirby said, “Birds of Prey — no, I never met on that, but I was so happy that it was a female superhero, anti-heroine movie coming around.” The actress highlighted some of the strengths of the genre, and said that it’s meaningful for her to consider roles that represent a wider array of people, while maintaining the essential nature of comics and superheroes.
“I always had a deep appreciation, because I understand they’re so globally loved and it’s almost like, culturally, like the Odyssey or the Iliad, you know?” She said. “These kind of like, mythical… They’re sort of symbols… So, when this one came around, I was so genuinely moved by the fact that this was a woman who was pregnant, and was a new mother, and also has these superpowers.”
Kirby said the “family” set-up of the Fantastic Four was what really allowed her to get into character as Sue Storm. “It helped me ground it in something,” she said. “To try and understand what it would be like to have both these things happening at the same time. It was a challenge, but I was grateful for that because it rooted it in this kind of domesticity somehow, you know? In this family, their home, which made it easy, I think.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on Friday, July 25th. The Batman and Birds of Prey are both streaming now on HBO Max.
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Image Courtesy of DC Comics -
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
