She's not blind to her looks
THIS spring, Jessica Alba will give birth to her first child with fiancé and movie producer Cash Warren. But on a recent evening, the 26-year-old star was anticipating another due date: the release of "The Eye," a remake of the Pang brothers' 2002 Hong Kong thriller. Alba stars in the film as a blind musician who, after receiving a dead woman's eyes in a double corneal transplant, is haunted by hellish visions.
"I want people to talk to the screen and be like, 'It's behind you!' 'Get out of there!' " says Alba, giggling gleefully. "I think that's fun."
Alba is actually a bit of a closet horror fan. As a kid, she used to hide behind her parents' couch to sneak peeks of scary movies such as "Hellraiser" and "Friday the 13th," as well as Hitchcock classics. And she once took a date to see "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to ensure maximum cuddle time. "When you're just starting to get used to the opposite sex, it's a great icebreaker," she says, her voice cracking ever so slightly.
While she still likes getting her thrills and chills, "The Eye" appealed to Alba because "it has some humanity to it," she says. "Nobody's getting mutilated." She also saw it as a chance to challenge herself and, in the process, perhaps even change the way audiences see blind people. "I wanted her to get her disability when she got her sight," the star says of her character, a concert violinist. "It's kind of a reverse of how everyone feels about this handicap."
As a character study, "The Eye" marks a bit of a departure for Alba, who is perhaps better known for her bikini-perfect body than for her acting chops, despite being serious about her craft.
On this January evening, the mommy-to-be was in full nesting mode in her L.A. home, awaiting the arrival of her friend and stunt double from "Fantastic Four" for some girly bonding time ("I might do nails") before heading to the Sundance Film Festival to support "Made in America," a new documentary from Stacy Peralta about gang violence that Warren co-produced.
Alba is more than comfortable with a peripatetic lifestyle. Her father served in the Air Force, and she moved around a great deal as a child, spending time in California, Mississippi and Texas. Growing up, she and her older brother, Joshua, enjoyed all the staples of a Mexican American household -- though the actress is also of Danish and French ancestry. She remembers dinners of carne asada, rice and beans, and tripe soup, as well as "tortillas with every single meal -- even spaghetti."
