oan Gruffudd had never been stretched so thin. The Welsh actor had appeared in such productions as Titanic and King Arthur, not to mention the British made-for-television Horatio Hornblower movies, but Fantastic Four presented all sorts of new challenges—challenges of the physical, blue-screen and costume variety. And that's because Fantastic Four is a big-budget, FX-laden, superhero adventure that's designed to launch an X-Men-esque franchise for Twentieth Century Fox.
The film casts Gruffudd as Reed Richards, one of four astronauts transformed into unlikely heroes. Richards emerges as the elastic Mr. Fantastic, while Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) becomes Invisible Girl, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) morphs into the Thing, and Johnny Storm materializes as the Human Torch. It's not long, of course, before the Fantastic Four face a dreaded villain, namely Doctor Doom (Julian McMahon).
Fantastic Four will open nationwide on July 8. Gruffudd—whose name is pronounced YO-an Griffith—recently talked to Science Fiction Weekly about Fantastic Four, his career and the possibility of Fantastic Four sequels.
Ioan Gruffudd, how much, if anything, did you know about the Marvel comic books on which Fantastic Four is based?
Gruffudd: To be perfectly honest with you, I hadn't even heard of the Fantastic Four. I was aware of certain comic books. I'd heard of Spider-Man and whatnot, but I'd never heard of Fantastic Four. So I came to this completely fresh and from the point of view of the script, rather than from the history of it. Once I got involved with it I went and researched it, and I discovered what an incredible world it was, the Fantastic Four world and the whole Marvel world. And doing that certainly made it easier for me to play the part.
The comics got pretty deep into the romantic entanglements among these characters, particularly Reed and Susan, not to mention the Reed-Susan-Ben triangle. How much does the film delve into all that?
Gruffudd: We touch upon it in this film, I would say. We've created sort of a backstory that Sue is going out with Victor Von Doom (McMahon) at the beginning of the movie and that we, Reed and Susan, did have a relationship in the past. But that relationship fell to pieces and slipped through my fingers because I was so self-involved in my work.
What did you make of working with Michael, Chris and Jessica?
Gruffudd: Michael and I play best mates in the movie, and we got on great. He's a great actor, and this was something very diverse for him, compared to what he plays on The Shield. We hung out a little bit, and we played golf and so on. But he suffered so badly wearing his costume. It was really hard to see him go through it. He was miserable every day. But that sort of helped him, I think, to play the character. And I used it, too. I created this guilt. Jessica, what can I say? She's absolutely gorgeous, and it was a real pleasure to come in to work every day, on an aesthetic level and on a personal, friendship level. She's a lovely, down-to-Earth, normal girl. And Chris is just one of the guys. He's awesome. So we all got on.
Tim Story was an interesting choice as director. Some directors, on these kinds of pictures, focus more on the technical aspects and leave the acting to the actors. What was your experience with him?
Gruffudd: Tim, I think, was there, was present, and he got involved in everything as much as he could. I think that was why he was hired, because he'd gotten such good performances out of everybody in Barbershop, and he'd put together such a character-driven piece. I think the studio wanted somebody who had that kind of background. So he was involved in all the script changes. He listened to everybody's ideas. Obviously, the studio had the last word, and he was suffering with that a little bit. But, really, he was involved with everything, and I found him to be a good energy on the set. He sort of drove the thing along because he's young and ambitious and just a genuinely lovely guy.
You've done the Hornblower TV movies and Titanic, and you played Lancelot in King Arthur. As these mega-productions go, how alike or dissimilar was Fantastic Four?
Gruffudd: Wow. Well, when I did Titanic, that was huge. I still believe that that was the biggest thing I've done so far as scale to date. King Arthur was pretty enormous, too. We were outdoors, and it was an incredible pleasure. We were physically on horses. We were in the elements. We were physically lifting up swords. Fantastic Four was massive, but it was slightly more frustrating because it was so technical. All of the shots were set up for the purposes of the visual effects. So essentially you were giving away half your character to the visual effects guys. So it was sort of frustrating.
If there is a Fantastic Four sequel, how would you like to see Reed/Mr. Fantastic further developed?
Gruffudd: Well, I don't get to play the leader in this first one. I become the leader at the end of it. So I'm looking forward to becoming more of a leader, more of a heroic figure, rather than someone who's first discovering his inner strength.
Fantastic Four could be that project that puts you on the map in terms of reaching audiences in America. How exciting a prospect is that?
Gruffudd: I'm very excited about it. I'm very excited about what may happen as far as this being a great opportunity for me as an actor. Certainly, an element of my doing this was the fact that this movie will have a massive profile and massive release, and it will therefore raise my profile. There was definitely some calculation in doing this. And I hope it does, in turn, help to raise my profile here, domestically. I live in L.A. now. I'd like to keep working here, and regularly. So maybe it will help me to those parts that I'm losing out to people who are somewhat more established. Maybe this will help establish me.
How deeply into the pre-accident relationships does the film go?
Gruffudd: We go to space pretty early on. We have the accident pretty early on. We do the discovery of our powers in the first third of the movie, and from then on it's how we deal with our powers. Reed Richards' idea is he doesn't want the public to be exposed to us. He doesn't want to be a part of it. Johnny Storm, on the other hand, wants to be out in the public eye and exploit his powers. So, while Johnny is exploiting the situation, Reed is trying to find a cure to fix his best friend, Benjamin Grimm, who has been turned into this monster."
Have you seen your Mr. Fantastic toy yet? How cool is it to see yourself as an action figure?
Gruffudd: I've not gotten my toys yet. I've seen them. People have been sending me e-mails and picture approvals and whatever. That's pretty exciting. That's certainly something you dreamt of as a kid, having an action figure of yourself. And 20 years later, lo and behold, here I am. That's pretty cool, I must admit. That gives me a warm feeling inside.
We also wanted to ask you about Century City. That was an interesting series—a legal drama set in the not-too-distant future—that CBS canceled after just a few episodes. Take us through that experience.
Gruffudd: That was a baptism by fire, really. It was my first venture into American one-hour dramatic television, and, to be honest with you, that was the most exhausting thing I've ever done. I don't know how people do it for years and years. The hours were insane. Your life, basically, is on hold. I was playing an American, so I had to put a lot of extra work into the accent and everything. So a part of me was relieved that I didn't have to go and do another 22 episodes or whatever. But, on the other side, it was disappointing, because I had decided that that show was probably one way of raising my profile and getting a foot in the door domestically, here in the States. The cancellation was a real shock to the system, that it would happen so fast. The quality of it was very good. The standard was very high. We just needed time for it to develop and for people to get used to it, and we never had the chance.
What's next for you?
Gruffudd: Nothing is set in stone, but I'm considering my options. Right now, I'm just gallivanting [around L.A., where he lives with his girlfriend of five years, Alice Evans, whom he met when they both appeared in 102 Dalmations].
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Also in this issue:
The cast and crew of Dark Water
