Jessica Biel is one of the lucky former child stars who found work in Hollywood as an adult. However, “The Illusionist” actor’s success was hard-won and fell far short of her expectations. Her personal life has also had its tumultuous moments, and she’s made some regrettable decisions.
Biel told Marie Claire that always being under the watchful eye of her parents is what prevented her from having a tragic childhood, which is a common experience for many young actors. As an adolescent, many of her traumatic moments had nothing to do with her line of work, such as the horror of getting her period for the first time. “[I] thought I was dying,” she told Women’s Health. Then there was the pain of suffering her first heartbreak at age 16. “I would sit on my floor, cry, and listen to Elvis Presley,” she recalled to the Daily Beast. So many other kids can relate to these hurts, but most teens don’t get to work alongside an entertainment icon. At age 14, Biel played the daughter of Peter Fonda’s character in “Ulee’s Gold,” which was her first feature film. When Fonda died in 2019, she wrote on Instagram, “I’m forever grateful for him and the impact he had on me and my career.”
Biel’s early career also included a long run on the TV series “7th Heaven,” and she had to go to hell and back when she did a photo shoot that wasn’t in accord with the sanctimonious series’ conservative values.
A controversial magazine cover shoot made her cry
When Jessica Biel was 17, she participated in a racy photo shoot for Gear magazine. She was featured on the cover topless but covering her chest with one arm. The media shamed Biel when the March 2000 issue dropped, with The Washington Post accusing her of attention-seeking behavior. It was the biggest scandal to hit the cast of “7th Heaven” until TMZ obtained a tape recording of Biel’s on-screen dad, Stephen Collins, confessing to sexually molesting three underage girls.
On the “Awards Chatter” podcast, Biel recalled how she had to issue an apology to the show’s producer, Aaron Spelling. She also revealed that it was awkward interacting with her castmates after the magazine hit newsstands. “They didn’t even know if they should even look me in the eye, and I was just a mess,” she said.
While Biel wasn’t getting a lot of sympathy from the press and was being made to feel like she was in the wrong, she was trying to recover from a painful experience far too many young female actors are familiar with: having her youthful naivety exploited. She told IGN she didn’t go into the photo shoot with the intention of taking her top off. “I got in a situation where I was encouraged. And I was not looked after by the people that I was working with,” she said. Afterward, the thought of the revealing pictures being released horrified her. “I was just bawling to my dad. I said, ‘Dad, you need to get rid of this,'” she recalled. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it, and without knowing the full story behind the shoot, many people remained unsympathetic to Biel’s plight.
Jessica Biel regrets not finishing college
After her Gear magazine scandal, Jessica Biel decided to enroll at Tufts University. This meant she could no longer be a series regular on “7th Heaven” and could only make recurring appearances on the show. In a 2001 Deseret News interview, Biel recounted how emotional she got after being told to leave the set’s dinner table while the cast was shooting the opening credits for her first season with a reduced role. Learning that a version would air without her really made the change hit home. “It was awful. It was so bad. … I actually called my mother crying,” she recalled.
While Biel had been willing to sacrifice steady TV work to go to college, she never graduated. She decided to drop out when she got cast in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake, and she told the Los Angeles Times’ “The Envelope” that failing to obtain her degree is the single decision she regrets. “I wish I would have had that time that my girlfriends all had. I wish I would have lived in that crappy, nasty brownstone that they all lived in,” she told Allure (via Digital Spy).
It wasn’t just a case of FOMO and the nagging frustration of an unfulfilled goal that plagued Biel’s thoughts. In an interview with Glamour, she confessed to feeling guilt over how her decision affected someone she cared about. “I didn’t stay with my friend Hayden in our apartment — I bailed and she ended up living with some random people,” Biel said. “I still feel bad.”
Her acting career didn’t pan out how she hoped in would
Some celebrities get shunned by Hollywood because of their controversial behavior, while others just can’t seem to outshine their competition, making it more difficult for them to land the meaty roles they desire. Jessica Biel falls in the latter camp.
In her interview with Gear, Biel said she auditioned for Thora Birch’s role in the 1999 drama “American Beauty.” The part required a nude scene, and The Washington Post speculated that Biel stripped down for Gear in response to the snub. “It’s frustrating. I’m not looked at for those roles,” Biel told the magazine. In the years that followed, she continued to miss out on parts she had her heart set on. In a 2009 interview with Allure, she suggested that her attractiveness was partially to blame, and she said many casting directors weren’t giving her the chance to audition for their movies at all. “If you don’t want to even see me — that’s hurtful,” she said.
In a 2011 Elle interview (via Lainey Gossip), Biel revealed that she did get to audition for “The Notebook” and was devastated when she didn’t get the part Rachel McAdams would make iconic. She also auditioned to play Fantine in “Les Misérables” and said of the experience, “I was terrified to sing.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only role she wanted that went to Anne Hathaway. She auditioned to play Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises,” which also went to Hathaway. “Another one that got away,” she said. “I was gutted. I mean, to work with Christopher Nolan in that kind of role?”
Jessica Biel was prepared to quit Hollywood
When it seemed that Hollywood wouldn’t hire Jessica Biel anymore, she decided to take matters into her own hands by creating a production company, Iron Ocean. She founded it with Michelle Purple in 2007, so it clearly didn’t take her long to become disillusioned with acting after she graduated from “7th Heaven” to the big leagues. Speaking to “The Envelope” about why she made the career move, she said, “I think it was probably a collection of disappointments, you know, didn’t get this one, didn’t get that one. … All these no’s, no’s, no’s, no’s.”
On “The Bright Side” podcast, Biel said that her luck didn’t immediately improve when she placed herself in a more powerful position – it took a decade for her and Purple to have a major project picked up. It was the USA Network series “The Sinner,” which premiered in 2017. “[Purple] said, ‘If we don’t sell this show, I’m quitting,'” Biel recalled. “I said, ‘Me too, I’m quitting.'”
Biel also starred in the series as a woman who commits a brutal murder. She told People the role was emotionally exhausting. “Thank goodness for [my family],” she said, “because otherwise I’d be a depressive mess.” It was physically draining as well — in that her sinuses were constantly being drained of fluids. She told IndieWire, “The amount of snot that came out of my body, I still don’t think I’ve recovered from the dehydration.”
Jessica Biel’s relationship woes
Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel’s relationship almost didn’t last. When they broke up in 2011, Biel had to read some pretty brutal rumors about why their split happened, such as an Us Weekly report saying that Timberlake desperately wanted to dump her. “He hasn’t been happy with Jessica for close to two years,” a source claimed at the time. However, they got back together and tied the knot in 2012.
Their marriage faced a big test in November 2019 when Timberlake and Alisha Wainwright were photographed holding hands. Per Page Six, in a since-deleted Instagram post, Timberlake blamed his behavior on consuming an excessive amount of booze. A month later, a source told Us Weekly, “Jessica is still in a place where she’s very hurt and upset with Justin. She hasn’t fully forgiven him and isn’t letting him off easy.” While Biel decided not to walk away from her marriage, the hand-holding incident opened the gossip floodgates, ensuring that she and Timberlake would be plagued by divorce rumors for years to come.
When Timberlake was arrested on a DWI charge in June 2024, he probably regretted mentioning alcohol in his apology to Biel. Of how Biel supposedly felt about her husband’s arrest, a source told Us Weekly, “Jessica is extremely upset. She was shocked to hear the news.” Speaking to InTouch, another insider said, “Justin has humiliated her again.” So, although her marriage remains intact, her husband isn’t making things easy for her.
