The issues surrounding the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four have become public knowledge in recent years, whether it regards the extreme creative differences between director Josh Trank and 20th Century Fox or the alleged on-set behaviour by the director, and now, one of the stars of the film has reflected on her experience while shooting the film.
During an interview with Collider while promoting her new FX series A Teacher, Kate Mara, who played Susan Storm in the film, discussed her own personal experience on the set of Fantastic Four and while she doesn’t regret making the film, she does regret not standing up for herself during filming in the alleged toxic work environment.
“I think that the thing that I always go back to on that one is that I think I should have followed my instincts more. Like when my gut was telling me, ‘You probably shouldn’t let that slide, what that person just said,’ or if you’re feeling a certain way about what an energy is like and how that is affecting your performance. You’re being paid to do a certain thing and if something is in the way of that, you have the right to speak up and say, ‘I’m actually not able to do what I am here to do because of X, Y and Z.’”
Mara continued to explain the importance of speaking up when something doesn’t feel right, which turns out to be one of the regrets she took away from the Fantastic Four.
“I think that speaking up is something that I think that we all probably learn it over and over again, to follow your instincts and if you’re feeling a certain thing that is uneasy or whatever, there’s a reason for it. But, 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?”
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