Working with a visionary director like James Cameron isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. Considering how the filmmaker often pushes his stars to their limits, even the most seasoned actors sometimes fail to withstand the grueling process. But 18-year-old Jessica Alba showcased her acting prowess and commitment to her role when cast in Cameron’s Dark Angel.
Although Jessica Alba reflected on her role as the cyborg Max Guevara in Dark Angel and noted how physically taxing it was, she also mentioned how the role helped her break out of Hollywood stereotypes. Prior to working with James Cameron, the actress admitted to feeling stereotyped for being Latina. However, it was Cameron’s 2000 sci-fi series that saved Alba by changing the trajectory of her career.
Jessica Alba Addressed the Grueling Journey of Making Dark Angel
Famously known for her role in Sin City and Marvel’s Fantastic Four movies, Jessica Alba has created a position for herself in the entertainment industry as one of the most seasoned stars. But that reputation didn’t come out of the blue; the actress had to physically and mentally connect with her characters and devote her time to her profession.
One of such physically and mentally taxing situations came during Jessica Alba’s appearance in James Cameron‘s two-seasoned sci-fi series Dark Angel. Playing the role of cyborg Max Guevara in the 2000’s series, Alba admitted to working harder than ever as an 18 year old rising star.
According to Black Film, Jessica Alba reflected on her role in the show and noted working even on weekends for over 10 extensive months. Moreover, James Cameron’s filming process was so intense that Alba barely saw sunlight, as they had to shoot on cold Vancouver nights for 4 to 5 days a week.
Dark Angel was intense for me. It was impossible for me. I worked on the weekends, 10½ months a year, in the cold, in Vancouver; with night shoots 4 to 5 days a week. I would leave at dark after working and come back at dark and then it was raining.
Further, during another interview via Closer Weekly, Jessica Alba shared a little more detail about her work schedule while filming Dark Angel. Revealing how she had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to workout, before reaching the set by 8:45 am, Alba mentioned eating breakfast while on the makeup chair, followed by her line rehearsals.
I have to get up at 6:30 so I can work out from 7:00 to 8:30, then I have to run back to my house, take a shower so I can get picked up at 8:45 — which I’m usually five to eight minutes later for, and my driver probably isn’t the happiest man in the world — then I have to get my butt to set, go straight into makeup.
I eat my breakfast while I get my hair and make-up done and in the middle of that, I have to go and get pulled for rehearsals, come back and change, and go on to the set. I’m there all day until about 11:00 at night when they say we’ve lost our location and there’s no way we can shoot anything else, and start it all over again.
We’re really shooting a mini-movie in eight days, and in that, I’m doing two or three pages of dialogue with three or four different characters and, like, five hours of action sequences. That can be any day.
Well, based on the routine shared by Jessica Alba, James Cameron undoubtedly maintained a strict discipline on set, which could break any star, let alone Alba, who was merely 18 years old at the time.
James Cameron Helped Save Jessica Alba’s Career from Hollywood Stereotypes
However, despite the show’s work schedule and grueling filming process, Jessica Alba claimed to be very appreciative of the opportunity, for a number of reasons. According to Alba, while the show was a breakthrough project and a major opportunity to work with James Cameron, Dark Angel also served as a career-changing option, when she was being pigeonholed in the industry.
Speaking with Radio Free, Jessica Alba once noted that during the initial years of her career, she was confined to stereotypical roles in Hollywood, perhaps due to her Latina heritage. Offered with unflattering opportunities, despite being well aware of her capabilities, Alba mentioned how her talent often went unnoticed, until her collaboration with James Cameron.
And it was such a classist, bizarre thing because I grew up in the United States. My mother’s white, my father’s Mexican. And my father’s very dark and my mother’s very fair, and I came out how I did, and they always want to pigeonhole you. And it’s bizarre.
We’re just people living in society, and I never think about it until people make me think about it. And this industry definitely made me think about me being a Latin girl, up until I was eighteen and I did Dark Angel, and [series creator James Cameron] basically said, ‘You’re the future of the race.’
And that’s basically what Dark Angel was, where you were just a mixture and we’re not going to talk about it. And it’s done, and then you’re just a human being going through the struggle of your journey. And so now, it’s very liberating working with people that aren’t going to pigeonhole you as the janitor’s daughter.
Eventually, unlike how she was usually treated by filmmakers and producers in the industry, and the types of roles she readily appeared in, James Cameron offered Jessica Alba an unprecedented opportunity. This started a domino effect, and soon, Alba’s career was forever changed for good. So it seems that Cameron significantly shaped the actress’ career in the industry, which later saw her star in major franchises.
Dark Angel is currently available to watch on Prime Video.
