When you’ve worn the chrome yourself, your opinion carries weight. Doug Jones, who physically played the Silver Surfer in 2007 in ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’, is giving Julia Garner a glowing review of her re-creation of the cosmic herald in ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’.
Sure, Garner’s casting wasn’t received well by some Marvel fans, considering the character’s comic history. However, Jones’ verdict is glowing.
Doug Jones Calls Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer Performance “Brave”
Jones, a genre legend with several transformative roles, described Garner’s performance as gorgeous, not only because of her talent, but also because of her bravery. “I thought it was brave of her to step into that, knowing that fans were going to be like, ‘Wait a second,’” Jones shared. “But she was great and did it with great poise and great courage,” he shared on the Operation Taco Gary’s.
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This validation is important, as it is given by the man who contributed to the creation of Norrin Radd on screen. When asked about his experience playing the character, the actor had only nice words to say: “When I got to play the Silver Surfer back in those original Fantastic Four movies, it was such an honor. Are you kidding me? To take on a Marvel character that was so beloved and so beautiful and so angelic-like.”
Doug Jones Celebrates Julia Garner’s Marvel Debut
Garner’s casting as Shalla-Bal (instead of the more popular Norrin Radd) was met with expected online controversy. Others were quick to scream gender swap, although the comic book origins of Shalla-Bal dated back decades, with alternate-universe versions, such as those of Earth X. However, Jones sees the larger picture.
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He remembered the pride of being such a beloved and angelic-like Marvel character and knows the burden that comes with it. It is exactly why he likes the fact that Garner was ready to make the jump. It is not an easy task to enter into a role with such a legacy and fan expectations.
Marvel Studios went to the extent of inviting Jones and other legacy cast members, such as Ioan Gruffudd, to the premiere of ‘First Steps’. For Jones, it was a circle of life, a handing over of the cosmic torch.
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