HOWZAT

Alba takes the praise in her stride, preferring to concentrate on her career-boosting decision to go blonde. “Everyone was against it,” she says. “My agent, and my younger brother, Josh, who said, ‘You are just going to look like one of those Mexican girls who are trying to be white.’ It’s typical of younger brothers to come up with that kind of thing, isn’t it? But I was finding it difficult to be thought of by casting directors as a regular American girl.” Alba was born in California and has spent most of her life there, apart from two stretches with her family in Mississippi and Texas, thanks to her father’s job in the air force. She clearly feels there has been too much emphasis on her either being Latin or playing dark and mysterious. “My dad is dark, but my mother is fair, with blonde hair, orange freckles and extremely white skin,” she says. “I thought, ‘It’s time I looked a bit more like Mom.’”

The impact was instant. She has already finished her latest film, an underwater action adventure called Into the Blue, which is out in September, and new offers are stacking up. “There is always an unspoken problem about casting Latina actresses,” she says. “I have heard Jennifer Lopez talk about how it was for her, always being up for the role of the Latina chick. So I felt I needed to do something dramatic to make a new impression.” She gives an example from her own family life to show how things have changed. “My grandfather was the only Mexican at his college, the only Hispanic person at work and the only one at the all-white country club. He tried to forget his Mexican roots, because he never wanted his kids to be made to feel different in America. He and my grandmother didn’t speak Spanish to their children. Now, as a third-generation American, I feel as if I have finally cut loose.”

Alba does not hide her do-what-it-takes attitude, which is understood and appreciated by decision-makers in Hollywood. She takes a similarly pragmatic attitude to her private life, after starting a new relationship earlier this year with Cash Warren, the 25-year-old producing partner of Fantastic Four’s director, Tim Story. “I have decided I am too high maintenance to have another relationship with an actor,” she says. “I do not need somebody who wants as much hair and make-up time as me.”

She warms to her theme, recalling past, unnamed co-stars. “Men are much bigger divas than women,” she says. “When I used to do the action scenes in Dark Angel, I would have to play it rough. If you hit an actress accidentally, she would usually take it on the chin and say, ‘Don’t do that again.’ But with the guys, they would put ice on it, take a 20-minute break and ask for x-rays. It was unbelievable. I would tell them, ‘Come on, man, get over it.’ That’s actors for you.”

BACKGROUND

• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Sunday Times review

• Game Review - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

BACKGROUND

• Fantastic Four

• Film: A blast from the past

• The comic strip presents... Jessica Alba profile

The new superheroes

From Wonder Woman to Tintin, what feeds Hollywood’s love affair with comic-book heroes?

Related Internet Links

• 2007 London Film Festival coverage

• Times Online Film Trailers

Perhaps it is no surprise that Tom Cruise was allegedly warned off the forthright Alba — she was once engaged to her Dark Angel co-star Michael Weatherly, and is a past date of the Boogie Nights star Mark Wahlberg — when he tried to make contact with her a few months ago. He instead started dating 26-year-old Katie Holmes, often described as a “sweet girl”. The rest we know. “Do I want to be dating the kind of guys who spend so much time in front of a mirror?” asks Alba. “I don’t think so.”

Fantastic Four opens on July 22; Sin City is now on general release

A film star is born — on TV

The step from small to big screen is a giant one. But that hasn’t deterred a growing number of television actresses. The most high-profile is Sarah Michelle Gellar, 28, who has parlayed Buffy into a $3m fee. So far, she has scored at the box office with two Scooby-Doo films and The Grudge.

Katie Holmes, 26, from Dawson’s Creek, looks set to catch her up, now she finally has a hit with Batman Begins. Jennifer Garner, 33, of Alias, is also revving up, with Daredevil, 13 Going on 30, and Elektra; while Jessica Biel, 23, from 7th Heaven, is in overdrive — 10 movies since 2001, including last year’s hit Blade: Trinity. The youngest success story is Lindsay Lohan, 18, who made her debut in the soap Another World. Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and the upcoming Herbie: Fully Loaded make her the richest teen actress in the world.

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010