Ebon Moss-Bachrach may be playing Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, in Marvel’s upcoming reboot of “The Fantastic Four,” but he admits he didn’t read comics about the superhero team when he was younger
“I was a comic book fan, but the comic books I read when I was a kid were more like the cheaper kind of ones I could get from the five-cent bin,” the actor told me Tuesday at the Los Angeles premiere of “The Bear” Season 3. “I liked ‘Archie,’ some ‘Richie Rich.’ I really liked ‘Groo.’ I liked ‘ElfQuest’ a lot. I think some of my earliest sexual visions were ‘ElfQuest.’”
Moss-Bachrach’s “Fantastic Four” co-stars include Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/the Human Torch, and Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer.
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Moss-Bachrach declined to tell me what the cast has been talking about in their group chat, but he does still seem mystified that he’s been cast in such a major project. “Of course not,” he said when I asked if he ever imagined himself in a superhero movie. “It’s all pretty crazy.”
He previously joked with Jimmy Kimmel that he’s preparing for his work by “looking at rocks.”
Moss-Bachrach was also surprised to see what a production the “The Bear” Season 3 premiere turned out to be. A gold carpet was rolled out in front of the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Shelves packed with jars, cans of food and cooking equipment lined the step-and-repeat. The after-party was a foodie’s dream with restaurant stations offering bites from Alta Adams, August Novelties, Coco’s to Go-Go, Loaf Lounge, Mayday LA, Night + Market, Pasjoli, Pizzeria Bianco, Publican Quality Meats, Stir Crazy and Yangban.
FX and Hulu have certainly upped their “Bear” game. “The first premiere happened in the parking lot about a mile that way,” Moss-Bachrach said, pointing south on Hollywood Boulevard. “It was like a temporary tent set up to screen the thing. It was folding chairs. Somebody was sitting in my seat.”
“This is quite different,” he continued. “We didn’t have a premiere last year because we were on strike. This is something else.”
See more photos from “The Bear” Season 3 premiere below.
