While Jessica Biel has been a household name for many years, a recent confession of hers proves the reality of Hollywood isn’t quite as it seems. In fact, she admitted she was almost ready to jump ship before her 2017 show The Sinner came along.
“When we were actually selling that show, [producer Michelle Purple] and I looked at each other and she said, ‘If we don’t sell this show, I’m quitting.’ And I said, ‘Me too, I’m quitting. I’m not doing this,'” Biel said in an episode of The Bright Side podcast, per People. “‘I don’t know – if this show doesn’t sell, I don’t know what people want, I don’t know what to bring them. I don’t understand this business anymore. I just don’t get it anymore.'”
She also shared a glimpse of how her career was going before they began their collaboration. “Doors did not open at all, even being in the business for so long,” she remembered. “I started it with [Purple] when I was twenty-two, and for the first ten years, we had almost no success at all. We had a very challenging time getting any story told.”
Luckily for Biel and her fans, getting The Sinner into production was easier than they expected. “And then we sold it in the room,” she said of the four-season show. “It was so weird.”
For Biel, her whirlwind career put into perspective how challenging the industry can be. “I don’t find that my industry — or, being an actor or producer — is easy in any way, shape or form,” she admitted. “It is so much blood, sweat and tears that you put into getting these projects made, and so many of the things we work on never, ever come to fruition.”
The Sinner, however, changed everything for her. “Working in television now is such a different thing than it was back then,” Biel once said about the impact of the show, for which she was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe. “There’s so much opportunity and there are so many people that want to take risks and give women the kind of opportunities that we’ve been dying for and dreaming about our whole career.”
Knowing how many projects Biel has been a part of since 2017, like the Emmy-nominated show Candy, we’re glad she stuck around.
Before you go, click here to see celebrities who have returned to acting or singing after retiring.
