The below contains spoilers for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” now in theaters, and the 2020 film “Pieces of a Woman.”
Vanessa Kirby brought a piece of her former film experience to “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” The actress tapped into her past Oscar-nominated turn in 2020 Netflix drama “Pieces of a Woman” for a certain sequence in the latest MCU installment. Kirby’s respective characters give birth in both features; Kirby, who is currently pregnant in real life, told Variety while promoting “First Steps” that she was “so excited” to be giving birth again onscreen.
“I also did a birth in this this little movie called ‘Pieces of a Woman.’ I was so excited to be asked to do it again, and I also wanted to make it different. And then, of course, we were doing it in zero gravity, so that’s its own challenge,” she said.
“Pieces of a Woman” was the English-language debut of director Kornél Mundruczó. Kirby and Shia LaBeouf played a couple reeling after their home birth ends in tragedy. Martin Scorsese executive produced the film. Kirby previously told IndieWire that “Pieces of a Woman” was “exhilarating” and the “best film experience of [her] life” at the time.
Five years later, and Kirby’s “First Steps” birthing storyline is decidedly more family-friendly. Her character Sue Storm gives birth in space, and the infant changes the course of the MCU. “I remember reading that going, ‘This is so cool that, at the midpoint of the movie, it centers this woman giving birth, and these three kind and loving men supporting her as she’s doing it,’” Kirby said to Variety about the sequence alongside her co-stars Pedro Pascal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn. “It was so cool to see that a superhero was doing something so primal and so utterly human. I was most excited for that bit.”
She continued, “The courage to put this very primal feminine act — and what it represents that it’s happening intergalactically while they’re in space — there’s something very metaphorical about it. We had an amazing couple of weeks shooting that sequence in that spaceship. I loved every minute. I lost my voice by the end. You only see a few shots in there, but we did hundreds, just roaring the whole time. I think the crew had to get earplugs by the end. It was a very beautiful thing to shoot. I felt so supported by those actors.”
Kirby also could relate to the “maternal force” embodied by “First Steps.”
“In a way, it taught me so much about motherhood, because that’s what motherhood is. It’s not a passive thing. To give birth, you have to be completely, totally fierce. I’m so happy that you feel that. That’s so moving to me, and all I could have hoped for her,” she said of the film. “It was so helpful to know that it was a mother’s rage, and a mother’s love, because it felt animal. I wanted it to feel more primal, rather than just, ‘I’m trying to defeat this enemy for everybody.’ It’s more like, ‘I’m fighting to save my child.’ I wanted to tap into how fierce the feminine is, while knowing that Sue also embodies a very soft femininity as well. I really noticed my own apprehensions about playing a pregnant mother, superhero, wife, and sister. We were so conscious of trying not to fall into any tropes. It’s not like Sue had to be so tough that she couldn’t also be very gentle. Mothers are honestly warriors, everyday superheroes. We all know that, because we all come from one.”