Julia Garner Talks Silver Surfer Gender Swap & Why She Didn't Think She Got 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' Role at First

Julia Garner is opening up about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The 31-year-old actress, who will star in this summer’s Fantastic Four: First Steps as the female version of Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal.

She opened up about meeting director Matt Shakman to talk about the movie at a restaurant in Burbank, Calif.

“I was confused because I was like, ‘Wait, isn’t the Silver Surfer a man?’ I was just like, ‘Okay, well, I’ll play anything.’ I was a very big fan of Matt’s, so there was already, in my mind, like, ‘I should probably meet with Matt Shakman because he’s a very smart director and I love his work,’” she recalled to Entertainment Weekly.

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“And then he was explaining to me that it’s actually Shalla-Bal and that whole thing,” she continued.

“He wasn’t telling me a whole bunch about the movie, but we were talking a lot about the 1960s. Our meeting went all over the place, and I thought I wasn’t actually going to get the part because the meeting was all over the place. I was like, ‘I don’t know how he will hire me for this job.’ I mean, we were talking about communism, brutalist architecture, all this stuff. And then they were like, ‘You got it.’ I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ So I think that we vibed, but you never know, basically, is what I’m saying.”

Shalla-Bal is the herald of Galactus, a planet-devouring behemoth voiced by Ralph Ineson in the movie.

“That was my first time doing that technology, and it was crazy,” she recalled of the motion capture tech.

“It was such a surreal experience. It was wild. Normally, last looks would be hair and makeup, and then all of a sudden, it was just wires.”

She also did a lot of yoga to prepare for her surfboarding scenes.

“I wish it were as cinematic as it is in everybody’s mind, thinking it’s a Rocky training. I wish I could say that. I just did my basic exercising, some Pilates, and yoga. I did a lot of yoga just because I knew that I was going to be doing positions all day surfing. But it was weird — I was in motion-cap, but I mean, I wasn’t eating donuts and hamburgers every day and not moving,” she reflected.

“I just thought it was so cool. It kind of oddly looked like … well, I don’t want to say fashion-y, but you could totally see it on, I felt like, a runway, which is something I always notice the best. The costume has to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, especially with Marvel. People love that,” she said.

“At the end of the day, it is a comic book. I’m excited to see it — I really haven’t seen anything besides the trailer and some mockup scenes, so it’s going to be interesting.”

Get a first look at Julia Garner‘s gender-swapped Silver Surfer in the trailer.