The 2015 film, Fantastic Four, was one of the poorest film adaptations of Marvel comics, or any other comics, for that matter. 20th Century Fox greenlit the reboot of the 2005 Fantastic Four franchise with an entirely new cast in 2009. Although the idea of a reboot held promise, its execution failed miserably with the production plagued by several issues.
The film featured Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell as the superhero team. Jamie Bell played the Thing in the movie and unveiled his source of inspiration for the Marvel superhero role.
Jamie Bell Revealed Another Marvel Actor As His Inspiration
Jamie Bell sat down with fellow English actor, Robert Pattinson, to discuss his movies and roles in 2015 for Interview Magazine. In particular, they talked about Jamie Bell’s role as the Thing in Fantastic Four which had just been released at that time. Pattinson was curious about Bell’s character and asked whether Bell ever showed his face in the movie. Bell explained that the character was a human before transforming into Thing.
Bell also disclosed that there was a possibility for the character to revert to a human form in future sequel films. Pattinson further wanted to know if Bell had physically been on set for filming the part of Thing. In response, the 6 Days actor shared that the film had used performance capture technology. Jamie Bell went on to reveal his source of inspiration for portraying this performance capture role – Andy Serkis.
According to Bell, Serkis was a pioneer in the use of performance capture technology. He played the iconic characters of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes movies. Marvel fans may also recognize Serkis for his role as Ulysses Klaue in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther. Notably, Bell had worked together with the Star Wars actor in King Kong and The Adventures of Tintin.
Jamie Bell Considered Andy Serkis’s Role As A “Piece of Cinematic History”
Jamie Bell was impressed with Andy Serkis’s work in the films that they had worked together. Bell had witnessed Serkis masterfully harnessing the technology in their film together, King Kong, where Serkis played the motion capture role of the titular character Kong. Bell believed that Serkis saw the technology as an asset rather than a limitation to his acting prowess. Bell told Pattinson in the Interview Magazine:
“I’ve worked with Andy a bunch since we did Tintin together, so I’ve seen how he’s really harnessed this technology and used it to his advantage to create these lasting characters. I mean, I would consider Gollum to be a piece of cinematic history in popular culture, the same way Star Wars characters are. After my experience of seeing him work on Tintin and King Kong, I really saw how he could immerse himself in these characters.”
Jamie Bell tried to emulate Andy Serkis’s performances using the technology when he was given the chance in Fantastic Four. He found the role almost “bizarre”, as he had to play this huge guy despite being, in his own words, a “squat Englishman”. The Snowpiercer actor shared with Interview Magazine:
“I was really excited by the idea of using the same technology and coming up with a character that could have a lasting impression, that an audience could connect with. I also think the idea of me playing that role, a six-foot-eight rock creature, was kind of bizarre. As you know, I’m a five-foot-seven, rather squat Englishman. All of that combined was kind of interesting.”
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However, no amount of inspiration could save the film which was doomed from the beginning due to its poor execution. The film failed to break even at the box office collecting just $167.9 million.
Fantastic Four is now available for streaming on Disney+.
Source: Interview Magazine
