How María Gabriela de Faría Transformed Into The Engineer with Intense Prep in James Gunn's 'Superman'
She was torn between cold machinery and fading human emotions within her.
Ever wonder what it actually takes to play a woman whose body has been swallowed by nanotechnology? For Maria Gabriela de Faria, stepping into the role of Angela Spica — better known as The Engineer — in James Gunn’s Superman wasn’t just about looking the part. It meant pushing herself through three hours of training every single day, for eight gruelling months, long before cameras even rolled.
This was more than sculpting superhero arms.
"Going through that hardship really helped me prepare mentally," she revealed to Comic Book.
De Faría would even film herself at the gym, experimenting with how her body might move if it were literally fused with machines, and send the clips off to Gunn. "I feel this is how she walks," she’d write, trying to capture the weight of cold steel under warm skin.
Because inside The Engineer, she said, are two wolves: one pure machine, cold and logical, the other still human, with a conscience and a heart. Each day at the gym wasn’t just physical prep — it was a battle to understand how much of that humanity was left. Was connecting to the tech like a tickle, or did it stab under the ribs? With Gunn, she picked apart every tiny sensation until they built a villain who’s both terrifying and heartbreakingly trapped.
For de Faría, best known from horror fare like The Exorcism of God, this is her first huge studio gig — and she threw herself in, body and mind.
