Julia Garner is enjoying her chrome era.
There was instant fan love when Garner’s Silver Surfer first appeared in a trailer for Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (in theaters now). Since then, the character has inspired Instagram cosplayers as well as TikTokers meme-ing her in-movie message, heralding the coming of planet-devouring Galactus.
“I don’t have a TikTok,” Garner says. “People have been talking about TikTok. They’re like, ‘Did you know that this was going to be a thing on TikTok?’ I’m like, no. I’m in disbelief that people even know me.”
Playing the silver alien Shalla-Bal, though, “I never looked so cool in my life,” Garner adds with a laugh. “This looks almost like a Met Gala look or some high fashion thing.”
Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
Being in a Marvel movie is a departure for Garner, who won three Emmys for her role in the Netflix drama “Ozark.” But she gets one heck of an entrance: In the retrofuturistic 1960s setting of “Fantastic Four,” Shalla-Bal arrives in Times Square on a spiffy surfboard to warn that Earth is “marked for death” and Galactus (Ralph Ineson) is on the way.
Since she’s the one who identifies the planets that will be her boss’ next meal, Shalla-Bal has a “toxic relationship” with Galactus. “There’s no HR,” Garner quips. However, her connection with Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), the Human Torch and youngest Fantastic Four member, is one that’s actually meaningful to her. “She finds him amusing, but she doesn’t really want to show him. Secretly, I think she likes the attention.”
Garner, 31, who says she puts “love, rage and secrets” in every role she plays, did a deep dive into Shalla-Bal’s comic-book history. In Marvel lore, she was the lover of Norrin Radd, and when he agreed to be Galactus’ herald (and the original Silver Surfer) to spare their planet Zenn-La, they were separated. The actress was most surprised by “actually how tragic her story is. If this was a human, you would be like, it’s devastating. So that really resonated with me and helped ground it.” One thing she didn’t find going down that geeky rabbit hole: Her character inspiring the 1989 Joe Satriani guitar track “Back to Shalla-Bal.”
In 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” Doug Jones played the Radd version of the Surfer. But director Matt Shakman wanted to use Shalla-Bal instead because “First Steps” was a different universe than fans have seen – it takes place on Earth-828, as opposed to the MCU’s Earth-616 – and that choice made for a “really interesting story line” with Johnny.
A lot of attention was paid to how the computer-generated Shalla-Bal would appear. Garner portrayed the Surfer via a motion-capture suit and a helmet with a GoPro-type camera attached, and it was important to Shakman that Shalla-Bal was shiny and “completely reflective” but still “emotionally powerful,” he says.
Another fun fact: Copper veining was added to the Surfer’s facade. “There’s a sense of old weathered metal in places, just this idea that she’s been doing this a long time and she’s gone through some pretty inhospitable environments. So there’s a touch of history to her.”
Shakman also hooked Garner up with surfing adviser Tehillah McGuinness to guide her with Shalla-Bal’s movement. “She surfs a neutron star. She surfs a wormhole, she surfs real water, she surfs lava. There’s a lot of great ways to make use of her Surfer-ness in the movie,” the director says. With McGuinness’ help, Garner learned how to feel comfortable and balanced on the board, “and not look clumsy, like you’re in control,” she adds.
Garner, who next stars in the horror film “Weapons” (in theaters Aug 8), found ways to add her own secret sauce to the Silver Surfer. For the opening message to humanity, she studied how T.S. Eliot would read his own poetry. “It was very eerie in a way but also comforting at the same time,” she says. To get in Shalla-Bal’s mindset before takes, she’d listen to spacey ’70s krautrock music (“I just imagined that that’s what she would be surfing to”) and also learned to speak her character’s fictional native tongue, Zenn-Lavian.
“It’s not as hard as you would think. It’s not like learning Japanese or something,” Garner laughs. “Would I want a monologue in Zenn-Lavian? No. But I can say a few lines.”
And while Garner became the Silver Surfer, she hasn’t tried out her newfound board skills in real life. Nor will she. “The water that I enjoy is that kiddie water that doesn’t have any sort of wave,” she says with a smile. “I’m quite scared of waves.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Silver Surfer Julia Garner felt ‘so cool’ as Galactus’ herald
