From Summer Issue 62
Glass speaks to British actor Vanessa Kirby about how her love of playing emotionally complex women continues in her upcoming role as a Marvel superhero
Vanessa Kirby is a busy woman. “I just got shouted at by a man in a car on the street … Sorry, I’m just leaving set now after a 20-hour shoot day,” she casually blurts out mid-interview, an interview that nearly didn’t happen given a filming schedule with MCU-scale demands. But if there’s anyone who can juggle real-life logistics, intensity, introspection and intergalactic stakes, it’s Kirby.
Born and raised in Wimbledon, London, Kirby grew up in a household steeped in creativity and intellect. Her father was a renowned urologist and her mother was a Country Living writer. She attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, a prestigious girls school, before going on to study English at the University of Exeter. From early on, it was clear that storytelling in all its forms would be central to her path.
Photograph: Zoe McConnell
No stranger to the emotional terrain of performance, the 37-year-old actress has cemented herself as one of the most culturally resonant artists of our generation. Her performances carry with them a rare blend of substance, empathy and purpose. Kirby doesn’t simply act – she inhabits. Every character she chooses seems to echo her deeper fascination with human fragility and the quiet revolutions happening beneath the surface of our lives.
Her accolades only affirm what audiences already feel. With a BAFTA win and an Academy Award nomination, Kirby’s impact is undeniable. Her breakthrough role as Estella in the BBC’s Great Expectations (2011) earned her early praise for what Variety called a “perilous magnetism”. But it was her portrayal of Princess Margaret in The Crown (2016–2017) that elevated her to international acclaim, bringing her a BAFTA and an Emmy nomination. Kirby seems to have a penchant for embodying the complexities of women caught between duty and desire, formality and freedom.
Photograph: Zoe McConnell
From there, she expanded her repertoire to include major action franchises. She starred in Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and returned in Mission: Impossible 7 (2023). In Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), she held her own as MI6 agent Hattie Shaw, proving she could command both emotional intimacy and blockbuster scale. Her most critically acclaimed role to date came in Pieces of a Woman (2020), a raw and unflinching portrait of grief and womanhood post-miscarriage. The performance won her the Volpi Cup at Venice and nominations from the Oscars, Golden Globes and BAFTA.
Now, Kirby steps into an entirely different universe as Sue Storm in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, marking Marvel Studios’ long-anticipated introduction of the “First Family” to the MCU. The casting is significant: Kirby’s blend of strength and vulnerability makes her uniquely suited to bring emotional credibility to a character defined, not just by powers, but by purpose.
Sue Storm’s super powers – invisibility and force field generation – are metaphors in their own right: about the unseen labour of women, about protection, about the simultaneous need to guard and to reveal. Set in a retro-futuristic 1960s-inspired parallel Earth, the film – directed by Matt Shakman (WandaVision) – avoids a traditional origin story. Instead, it dives straight into a narrative of cosmic proportions, pitting the team against Galactus and the Silver Surfer, longstanding MCU villains as envisioned by comic book writer Stan Lee.
Photograph: Zoe McConnell
“It was just so enjoyable to go and read all of her stories – exploring the imagination of what they do, where they go, and their central relationship during hardship,” says Kirby, “At its core, it’s about family, which makes it truly unique. I think that’s always been what’s relatable about the four of them – since 1961.”
That theme of family became the actress’s gateway into the world of Marvel. “Matt [Shakman] and the other writers had to decide what story to tell and how to set it in a 1960s retro-future world, which is super interesting because it’s an alternate universe. Just thinking about it, it’s fascinating to imagine how many versions of us might be out there.”
That’s one of the MCU’s greatest luxuries: freedom. You’re not bound by conventional rules of time or space, only by the emotional core of the story. And within that space, Kirby thrives. “It felt a bit like when we did The Crown,” she recalls. “We had to figure out how to portray the Royal Family. We knew it was a drama, not a documentary, so we had to make it feel real and believable. There are six people who know what it’s like to be in the Royal Family, so it’s not as if it had to be grounded in reality.”
Photograph: Zoe McConnell
She continues, drawing a connection: “It felt somewhat similar to this project because you have these iconic characters who exist in a world that’s both familiar and fantastical. It’s about creating a believable reality for them – a world where they’re affected by an accident they had and how they adjusted to it.”
Adjustment. That word lingers and rightly so. Much like her character in Pieces of a Woman, Sue Storm must navigate transformation, trauma and identity. In both roles, Kirby explores what happens after the unthinkable.
“When I started familiarising myself with the storyline, I realised that Marvel has always been about flawed, complex characters. They weren’t these perfect, holy superheroes. They had vulnerabilities, and that’s something Kevin [Feige, executive producer] has managed to maintain so well at Marvel. If you look at the Avengers, it’s just a group of people who don’t quite fit in but try to work together. It’s like our modern-day Odyssey or Iliad. No one’s perfect. No one knows what they’re doing. Everyone’s trying their best, failing and searching for their own version of family.”
And what’s more relatable than that? Misfits trying to figure out where they belong. In her own way, Kirby has long gravitated toward these stories – tales of characters lost in transition, seeking connection. It’s why Pieces of a Woman had such emotional gravity: it wasn’t just about loss, but about how people reconstruct themselves afterwards.
Photograph: Zoe McConnell
Kirby’s career has been marked by an interest in the unspoken, the messy, the human. And Fantastic Four, despite its superhero gloss, is no different. “In Fantastic Four, Sue was pregnant. We haven’t seen a pregnant superhero before and that’s so interesting. It’s a deeply female experience but also something that affects men with families,” she points out.
Rather than sidelining femininity, Kirby leans into it. Her work continuously seeks to rebalance narratives – to bring good men into the female experience and women into roles of unfiltered power. Unity through empathy.
Pieces of a Woman wasn’t crafted purely for the female gaze. It was written to dismantle shame around a topic that’s been stigmatised. Kirby echoes the sentiment. “I learnt how common miscarriage is and how many women experience it. Normalising it would be so much more beneficial than seeing it as a failure – it’s a natural part of many women’s journeys. I wish it were more talked about.”
She remembers watching the film’s now-famous 45-minute single-take scene depicting the devastating loss of her character’s new-born child. Peak pandemic and surrounded only by her nearest, Kirby witnessed the impact that the film had on a male audience. “I watched it with some of my best guy friends and even those who didn’t have kids were moved. It was so raw and real – nothing like the typical, sanitised portrayals of childbirth. Showing a woman going through something messy and having men empathise with her, that can be powerful. Even if it only changes one man’s perspective, that’s something.”
Photograph: Zoe McConnell
Therein lies the connection between the films she appears in. Kirby’s interest is always in the subtext: what these stories tell us about ourselves. Whether it’s royalty, superheroes or grieving parents, she asks the same question: How do we heal?
There’s no easy answer or straightforward path. The only way is to take full ownership of your own narrative. So what do we need more of in storytelling and in life? Kirby doesn’t hesitate: “Absolute vulnerability. It’s about courage – the bravery to be honest without feeling shame. That’s the biggest thing.”
She pauses, then continues. “I even have this little sign in my room that I found while travelling when I was 19. It says, ‘Tell the truth so you can forget what you said’.”
In a world where truth often feels like a disappearing act, Kirby’s commitment to emotional honesty makes her not just a compelling actress but a necessary one. And whether she’s playing a mourning mother, a royal rebel or a superhero who turns invisible, her power lies in making us all feel a little more seen.
by Adina Ilie
Photographer: Zoe McConnell
Fashion Director: Katie Felstead
Hair: Bryce Scarlett
Makeup: Jo Baker using LANCÔME
Manicurist: Jessica Thompson using LANCÔME
Producer: Joel Gilgallon at JOON CREATIVE
Digi Op: Nick Graham
Lighting assistant: Carissa Harrod
Styling assistant: Maki So
Talent: Vanessa Kirby
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