Josh Trank, director of Fantastic Four, a 2015 American superhero film; has revealed that he was forbidden from casting a black actress as Sue Storm.
The 36-year-old disclosed this during a recent virtual interview.
According to him, in addition to casting Michael B.Jordan as Johnny Storm, he had intended to cast a Black actress to play his sister, Sue Storm.
Trank, who directed the 20th Century Fox’s film confirmed that he was met with “pretty heavy pushback” from the studio—which was Fox before the rights went to Disney.
“There were a lot of controversial conversations that were had behind-the-scenes on that. I was mostly interested in a Black Sue Storm, a Black Johnny Storm and a Black Franklin Storm;” the director shared.
“But when you’re dealing with a studio on a massive movie like that, everybody wants to keep an open mind to who the big stars are going to be.”
“When it came down to it, I found a lot of pretty heavy pushback on casting a Black woman in that role,” he stated.
in the movie, Kate Mara played Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan played Johnny Storm, Miles Teller played Reed Richards, while Jamie Bell played Ben Grimm.
“When I look back on that, I should have just walked when that realization sort of hit me. And I feel embarrassed about that, that I didn’t just out of principle,” Trank expressed.
He added, “Because those aren’t the values I stand for in my own life. Those weren’t the values then or ever for me. Because I’m somebody who always talks about standing up for what I believe in, even if it means burning my career out.”
Trank reviews Fantastic Four
This isn’t the first time Trank has discussed working on Fantastic Four. He reviewed his own movie on Letterbxd back in November 2019.
“I was expecting it to be much worse than it was. I literally haven’t seen it since like two weeks before it came out, and I was in a heavily f–king traumatized state of mind. Why? Eh, save that for another time,” he wrote. “Everyone in the film is a great actor, and overall there is a movie in there, somewhere. And that cast deserves to be in THAT movie. Everyone who worked on Fant4stic clearly wanted to be making THAT movie. But…. ultimately… It wasn’t.”
“What I can tell is there are TWO different movies in one movie competing to be that movie,” he continued. “I was 29 years old, making my 2nd film. In a situation more complicated than anything a 2nd time filmmaker should’ve walked into.”
He admitted in his review that he didn’t regret “any part of it.” As he put it, “It’s a part of me.”
