‘The Bear’ Star Ebon Moss Bachrach on His Physical Transformation for ‘Fantastic Four’

The Bear’s Ebon Moss Bachrach arrived at the 76th Annual Emmy Awards clean-shaven and looking notably different from his on-screen counterpart, Richie Jerimovich.

As Bachrach explained, his work as Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, in Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps involves a great deal of motion-capture work, for which the actor had to shave off his signature facial hair.

"I’m doing a lot of motion capture. So for maximum-data facial capture, I have to be clean-shaven,” he explained. “They got so many amazing animators working on it, literally hundreds of people working on it.”

Though Bachrach has only seen “crude renderings” of himself as The Thing, he's hoping to see some of the real footage soon. “We’ve been shooting for about six weeks, and I haven’t been able to see anything yet. I don’t know exactly what the lead time is. I’m very excited to see something.”

Bachrach explained that his fellow cast members—Joseph Quinn, Vanessa Kirby, and Pedro Pascal—sent him a “sweet card” for Emmy’s night, which the actor admitted made him “tear up a bit.”

“It’s really kind,” Bachrach said. “I love them. We’ve been working so hard together. We’re so close, so even going away for a second I get a little separation anxiety,” he admitted. “Beautiful hearts, just a pleasure working with these guys. I miss them already.”

Shortly after the interview, Bachrach took the stage at the Emmys to accept his award for supporting actor in a comedy.

Fantastic Four: First Steps also stars Ozark’s Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal and Ralph Ineson as Galactus. It’s expected to hit cinemas on July 25, 2025.