Jessica Alba's acting memories aren't all sweet as honey.
The Honest Company founder admitted that she didn't enjoy her experience of shooting a scene in the 2005 movie Fantastic Four in which her character Sue Storm appeared completely naked over a bridge.
“I thought that was awful,” Jessica shared during a talk at the Red Sea Film Festival, per Variety. “It was very humiliating in real life."
At the time, the Honey actress felt like her nudity in the film—which also starred Chris Evans (Human Torch), Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm) and Ioan Gruffud (Mister Fantastic)—went against the way she was raised.
"I grew up with a pretty conservative family, and I am a pretty modest person," the 44-year-old explained. "I dreaded that scene for weeks. I have a lot of whiplash from those days.”
However, that doesn't mean Jessica had no fond memories of taking on the role of Sue Storm, who is also known as The Invisible Woman in the Marvel comics.
“She was a woman I looked up to,” she said. “She was very maternal and very kind, but also not a pushover; she spoke her mind. She had a great moral compass."
Up until that point, Jessica noted that it wasn't common for female characters to be so independent.
"Oftentimes, the women in these stories need to be saved by a guy or the villain, the problem in the story," she recalled. "This was back then. It’s different now.”
And since she's launched her own production company, Lady Metalmark Entertainment, Jessica is hoping to bring even more of that diversity into storytelling in Hollywood.
“When you have a lot of white guys in charge, they feel most comfortable telling stories through their lens,” she said. “They don’t know you. They didn’t grow up with a woman who grew up like me. Frankly, many of them didn’t have women [in their lives] who were strong—not just running the household but making an income."
While Jessica insisted she didn't "blame" Hollywood for that, she also emphasized that change is necessary.
"We still don’t have a lot of female leadership," she noted, adding, "But as a woman of color, I don’t see the boundaries that they may see.”
To look back on more of Jessica's evolution in Hollywood over the years, keep reading.