Jessica Alba at the Los Angeles press day for her new film, “The Eye,” a bone-chilling supernatural thriller that tests the boundaries of perception and reality. The movie is directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, the team who directed the suspenseful international hit “Them.”

Jessica plays Sydney Wells, an accomplished, independent, Los Angeles-based concert violinist who is also blind and has been so since a childhood tragedy. As our story opens, Sydney undergoes a double corneal transplant, a surgery she has waited her whole life to have, and her sight is restored. After the surgery, neural ophthalmologist Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) helps Sydney with the difficult adjustment, and with the support of her older sister Helen (Parker Posey), Sydney learns to see again.

But Sydney's happiness is short-lived as unexplainable shadowy and frightening images start to haunt her. Are they a passing aftermath of her surgery, Sydney's mind adjusting to sight, a product of her imagination, or something horrifyingly real? As Sydney's family and friends begin to doubt her sanity, Sydney is soon convinced that her anonymous eye donor has somehow opened the door to a terrifying world only she can now see.

Q: You’re not showing at all.  It’s amazing.  

Jessica Alba:  Really?  You haven’t seen my tummy.  My tummy is like poof [indicates big and round].  

Q: How are you dressing for maternity? How is it different than your everyday dress? 

Jessica Alba:  I probably dressed more kind of like a tomboy before.  You know, jeans, t-shirt, sneakers.  I could kind of get away with [that].  Now, nothing fits.  The jeans, you’ve got the panel so like the t-shirts are all like stretched in the wrong places and my shoes are too small.  Everything is just different.  I’m just all about cashmere sweaters and leggings kinda.  

Q: Is this the most challenging role you’ve ever had?  

Jessica Alba:  It kind of was.  ‘Dark Angel’ was quite challenging because I really had to carry that and do everything in that but, since then, yeah. It was intense having to play violin and having to play somebody who is blind and becomes sighted and starts to lose her mind a bit, seeing things that aren’t there and, yeah, it was quite challenging and definitely why I wanted to do it.  I like horror movies and I’ve wanted to do one for a while and I’ve read many over the years and, to me, this one, the psychological thriller aspect of it, I felt like it was intelligent and complex.   

Q: How was it working with the two directors?

Jessica Alba: It was good because you know one was more technically and the other was more sort of worked with us, the actors. It was kind of like Robert [Rodriquez] and Frank [Miller]. Robert sort of took the more technical side and Frank was more with the actors.

Q: Was it harder playing blind or playing the adjustment to sight?  

Jessica Alba: The adjustment to sight for sure because I’m so used to seeing, having to then… like in this room, instead of looking at anyone’s face, I’d probably focus more on the table because that’s the one thing that stands out; the white of the table and then maybe like the color of his shirt [red] or your shirt [blue]. You kind of pick up on things differently.  

Q: What did you learn from the blind lady you met and worked with?  

Jessica Alba:  I learned from her that just because you are blind and have this handicap that it really doesn’t need to impede anything in your life except for driving.  That’s the only thing she doesn’t do.  She travels by herself, takes subways and taxis. She goes to Europe.  She was walking on the wrong side of the road in England, you know, crossing the street and people who are sighted still can’t really figure that out [laughter]. She’s fine doing that.  I just thought it was incredible that she gets around in life and, to be honest, most cities aren’t equipped with Braille so she has to rely on other people to tell her if it’s a women’s room or a men’s room or what’s on the menu if she wants to buy something and, when she goes shopping, she has to trust that the sales clerk is telling her the right colors so she can label everything properly.