"7th Heaven" star Jessica Biel is one of the lucky former child stars who found work in Hollywood as an adult — but the actor's success didn't come easy, especially with a slew of controversies and setbacks.
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00:007th Heaven star Jessica Biel is one of the lucky former child stars who found work in
00:05Hollywood as an adult, but the actor's success didn't come easy, especially with a slew of
00:09controversies and setbacks.
00:11When Jessica Biel was 17, she participated in a racy photo shoot for Gear magazine. She
00:16was featured on the cover topless but covering her chest with one arm. The media shamed Biel
00:21when the March 2000 issue dropped, with The Washington Post accusing her of attention-seeking
00:26behavior.
00:27In an awards chatter podcast, Biel recalled how she had to issue an apology to the show's
00:31producer, Aaron Spelling. She also revealed that it was awkward interacting with her castmates
00:36after the magazine hit newsstands. She said,
00:38"...they didn't even know if they should even look me in the eye, and I was just a mess."
00:42While Biel wasn't getting a lot of sympathy from the press and was being made to feel
00:45like she was in the wrong, she was trying to recover from a painful experience far too
00:49many young female actors are familiar with — having her youthful naivety exploited.
00:54She told IGN she didn't go into the photo shoot with the intention of taking her top
00:58off, explaining,
00:59"...I got in a situation where I was encouraged, and I was not looked after by the people that
01:03I was working with."
01:04Afterward, the thought of the revealing pictures being released horrified her. She recalled,
01:09"...I was just bawling to my dad. I said, Dad, you need to get rid of this."
01:13Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it, and without knowing the full
01:16story behind the shoot, many people remained unsympathetic to Biel's plight.
01:20After her Gear magazine scandal, Jessica Biel decided to enroll at Tufts University.
01:25This meant she could no longer be a series regular on 7th Heaven, and could only make
01:29recurring appearances on the show.
01:31In a 2001 Deseret News interview, Biel recounted how emotional she got after being told to
01:36leave the set's dinner table while the cast was shooting the opening credits for her first
01:40season with a reduced role. Learning that a version would air without her really made
01:43the change hit home. She recalled,
01:45"...It was awful. It was so bad. I actually called my mother crying."
01:49While Biel had been willing to sacrifice steady TV work to go to college, she never graduated.
01:54She decided to drop out when she got cast in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, and
01:58she told the Los Angeles Times' The Envelope that failing to obtain her degree is the single
02:03decision she regrets. She elaborated more on this in an interview with Allure, saying,
02:07"...I wish I would have had that time that my girlfriends all had. I wish I would have
02:11lived in that crappy, nasty brownstone that they all lived in."
02:15Some celebrities get shunned by Hollywood because of their controversial behavior, while
02:19others just can't seem to outshine their competition, making it more difficult for them to land
02:23the meaty roles they desire. Jessica Biel falls in the latter camp.
02:27In her interview with Gear, Biel said she auditioned for Thora Birch's role in the 1999
02:32drama American Beauty. The part required a nude scene, and The Washington Post speculated
02:37that Biel stripped down for Gear in response to the snub. Biel told the magazine,
02:41"...It's frustrating. I'm not looked at for those roles."
02:44In the years that followed, she continued to miss out on parts she had her heart set
02:48In a 2009 interview with Allure, she suggested that her attractiveness was partially to blame,
02:53and she said many casting directors weren't giving her the chance to audition for their
02:56movies at all. She said,
02:58"...If you don't want to even see me, that's hurtful."
03:00In a 2011 Elle interview, Biel revealed that she did get to audition for The Notebook,
03:06and was devastated when she didn't get the part Rachel McAdams would make iconic. She
03:09also auditioned to play Fantine in Les Misérables, and said that she was simply,
03:14to sing. Unfortunately, it wasn't the only role she wanted that went to Anne Hathaway.
03:19She auditioned to play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, which also went to Hathaway.
03:23"...What do you know about him?"
03:25"...That you should be as afraid of him as I am."
03:29She admitted,
03:30"...Another one that got away. I was gutted. I mean, to work with Christopher Nolan in
03:33that kind of role?"
03:35When it seemed that Hollywood wouldn't hire Jessica Biel anymore, she decided to take
03:39matters into her own hands by creating a production company, Iron Ocean. She founded it with
03:43Michelle Purple in 2007, so it clearly didn't take her long to become disillusioned with
03:48acting after she graduated from Seventh Heaven to the big leagues.
03:52Speaking to The Envelope about why she made the career move, she said,
03:55"...I think it was probably a collection of disappointments. You know, didn't get this
03:59one, didn't get that one. All these no's, no's, no's, no's."
04:02On The Bright Side podcast, Biel said that her luck didn't immediately improve when she
04:07placed herself in a more powerful position. It took a decade for her and Purple to have
04:11a major project picked up. It was the USA Network series The Sinner, which premiered
04:15in 2017. Biel recalled,
04:17"...Purple said, if we don't sell this show, I'm quitting. I said, me too, I'm quitting."
04:22Biel also starred in the series as a woman who commits a brutal murder. She told People
04:26the role was emotionally exhausting, saying,
04:29"...Thank goodness for my family, because otherwise I'd be a depressive mess."
04:32It was physically draining as well, in that her sinuses were constantly being drained
04:36of fluids. She told IndieWire,
04:38"...the amount of snot that came out of my body, I still don't think I've recovered from
04:42the dehydration."
04:43Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel's relationship almost didn't last. When they broke up in
04:532011, Biel had to read some pretty brutal rumors about why their split happened, such
04:58as an Us Weekly report saying that Timberlake desperately wanted to dump her. At the time,
05:02a source claimed,
05:03"...he hasn't been happy with Jessica for close to two years."
05:06However, they got back together and tied the knot in 2012. Their marriage faced a big test
05:11in November 2019 when Timberlake and Alicia Wainwright were photographed holding hands.
05:16In a since-deleted Instagram post, Timberlake blamed his behavior on consuming an excessive
05:21amount of booze. A month later, a source told Us Weekly,
05:24"...Jessica is still in a place where she's very hurt and upset with Justin. She hasn't
05:28fully forgiven him and isn't letting him off easy."
05:31While Biel decided not to walk away from her marriage, the hand-holding incident opened
05:35the gossip floodgates, ensuring that she and Timberlake would be plagued by divorce
05:38rumors for years to come.