VANESSA

KIRBY CONTROLS EMOTIONAL RESPONSES WITH INTERNAL POWERS

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Vanessa Kirby isn’t exactly hiding behind the ensemble cast like her superhero character The Invisible Woman in the Fantastic 4.

Kirby is quite noticeable as a supporting character in other films and even more outstanding when cast as a niche character in a leading character role.

In Night Always Comes (2025) Lynette needs to raise $25,000 for a downpayment on a house that’s falling apart. The only real reason to buy the house is because she grew up in the house with her disabled brother and a dysfunctional mother haunted by the memory of a father who ran away a long time ago.

The waitressing job is not going to get her the money, and neither will the escort pick up work. Lynnette comes up with the idea that one of her wealthier clients might help out, one way or another.

One thing leads to another, but Lynnete still has a long way to go at 4 am in the morning to get to her financial goal.

The enigmatic acting style is equally compelling when cast alongside an ensemble of actors.

Kriby has this magnetic presentation that continually draws in the camera’s gaze whenever she appears in a scene despite the presence of more flamboyant acting leads, such as Jude Law, Tom Cruise and Joaquin Phoenix.

In Eden (2024) Dore joins her partner, Ritter, on an isolated island for the very reason of separating from a world in rapid decay between World Wars. Ritter wants to write a blueprint for the dark century unfolding, without copying the writings of Friedrich Neitzche.

Dore has multiple sclerosis, and spends the majority of her time on the island trying to manage her illness and possibly recover away from the city pollution of industrialized Germany. Kirby is cast as ever present in the near background of the rolling emotional intrigue of the island castaways.

While the other inhabitants become consumed by their emotions and enter into a life and death struggle for survival, Dore remains detached and rationally plotting outcomes without much public display.

Costars Jude Law, as Ritter, as well as Ana de Armas, Daniel Bruhl and Sydney Sweeney tend to work the front of the narrative with Kirby’s presence in the near background creating a compelling three dimensional storyline.

The screen character is more reflective of real life than one might think, creating characters away from direct examination in public life, like non-celebrities shying away from center stage and only disclosing their true thoughts whenever absolutely necessary.

Kirby is not hiding, though. The screen character is entirely rational, only sparingly showing subtle emotions, without exaggeration.

The screen character still catches the camera’s attention, ever present beside the leading actors, while just waiting for the right opportunity to speak, without intruding on the screen time of the leading protagonists.

Kirby, as Josephine Bonaparte in Napoleon (2023), plays a woman who makes her choices and lives with her choices as a way to survive the French Revolution.

Napoleon Bonoparte plots outcomes for France and the Empire, while Josephine keeps a safe place, for herself and her children, away from the guillotines.

In Pieces of a Woman (2020) Shia Lebouf costars with Kirby as romantic partners whose child dies during a home birth.

The storyline throws the child’s parents, Martha and Sean, into a collision course with Elizabeth, the grandmother, as the parties become consumed in false guilt over the unexpected loss of the newborn.

The relationships inevitably collapse as all parties involved struggle to understand the loss.

In Mr. Jones (2019), George Orwell is writing Animal Farm in London, while the New York Times Moscow Bureau succeeds in the capital by accepting the Marxist agenda of the state.

Kirby plays a bureau staffer, Ada, who puts a colleague onto the hidden story of famine in the grain rich region of Ukraine, which was under the control of Moscow at the time.

The Bureau Chief Durante and Ada share sympathises for the communist cause, but when the story of famine breaks, and the true horror of the communist experiment surfaces, Ada chooses to leave on ethical grounds while the bureau continues to take the Marxist line and attempts to cover up the worst effects of state control.

In the far background, Orwell would soon tell the world that the Communists had not created the worker’s paradise as theorized. Kirby provides just enough acting art in a supporting role to make the other actors realize their storylines.

Next to the Invisible Woman, Kirby exercises real power as the White Widow in the Mission Impossible franchise. In Fallout (2018) The White Widow brokers a deal for the return of three uranium cores that could be used to fuel three dirty bombs.

The Mission Impossible crew need the White Widow, but the deal struck becomes a tactical nightmare when team leader, Ethan Hunt, is asked to free the leader of a terrorist syndicate currently in custody.

Kirby plays the matriarch of a crime family who deal in dark black market spy stuff.

In Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (2023) The White Widow is again in the middle of a brokered deal for a weapon that can control or destroy the world. Kirby plays the consummate dealmaker, detached emotionally from the issues involved.

The role explores the more sinister nature of the screen character when she earns her trade by remaining emotionally reserved. Kirby is not neutral, but remains rational even when the outcomes may be the worst case for the parties attempting to sell the world.

Kirby climbed to fame after joining the ensemble cast of the episodic television series The Crown (Series 2016-2019) as Princess Maragaret. Kirby creates a supporting family member to the Queen, having grown up as sisters.

Siblings yes, but Princess Margaret is also shown to graciously take a secondary role as Princess, bound by the heredity rights of Kings and Queens. Eventually this loyalty interferes with the Princess’ pursuit of a life of her own.

Susan Storm can disappear when her emotions get the better of her. Kirby quickly returns the character to the screen though in more controlled circumstances when reason determines the fate of her character.

This keeping emotions in check allows the actor to engage in character development as she mixes vulnerability and strength to make decisions and move forward. Less is more, more often than not, with all eyes on the stoic actor as she enters the scene.

Kirby has created a screen persona in a supporting role, which allows her to then quickly move a more complex character forward along the narrative without distracting everyone else from the story telling.

Just like in the Fantastic 4, everyone has a unique skill and a particular role to play in the script.

In the process of cultivating self control over a situation, everything else on set receives a bit more attention, and often looks a bit more bumped up and dramatic.

Even Emperor Napoleon falls victim to the screen character’s spell, looking absurd at times as he emotionally courts the invisible magnetism of a stoic operating within a reasoned universe she has created for herself.