Jessica Biel has a new interview out in the British paper, The Independent (thanks to Lainey Gossip for the link). Now, Jessica Biel isn’t one of those actresses who comes across as interesting, or even sane, in interviews. Personally, I find her personality to be vapid, snotty and bratty, so that probably influences how I read her print interviews. That being said, Jessica does have a history of saying ridiculous, delusional and absurd things. Like the time she claimed her “beauty” was a problem for her career. Or the time after that where she reiterated that she wasn’t getting good acting roles because she’s so gorgeous, this time name-dropping Meryl Streep like she was worthy. Or the time when she pontificated about how she wasn’t “opposed” to being hired for the Twilight films. Or that she’s not “opposed” to doing Broadway. Because her voice is that good.
Anyway, most of Jessica’s new interview is about her voice work in Planet 51, an animated film. Of course the conversation veers into the direction of Justin Timberlake and the “rumors” of a split. That’s what she’s selling, y’all! And of course, Jessica even farts out this absurd line about her career: “”The truth is, you really don’t make these movies thinking, ‘Oh, this one’s it. This is going to get me my Academy Award.’ You don’t think about that.” Like she’s Cate Blanchett or something. Like Biel stole the role in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry away from Blanchett, just because Biel felt strongly about the character, regardless of the Oscar aspirations of that film. Of course. The full Independent piece is here, but there are some of the good highlights – the writer notes Biel is in “the odd position of being a movie star with no real hits.” Otherwise known as “that girl with the ass” (my words).
Biel on aliens: “I definitely believe in the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. There’s just so much space out there to not believe in that. For me, the idea with this movie is to be open to change. You should be accepting of change because, only through change, can you grow and learn more about yourself, as a human or alien.”
On her most difficult experience as an actress: “Doing any kind of family entertainment comes as a huge relief from making something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was probably one of the hardest experiences for me, emotionally and creatively. It was intense because I was at this high level of freak-out, for about a month. It was just so not this world. That kind of emotional strain was so different. Planet 51 was just fun. I wanted to do it because it was speaking to my inner child. Yes, I want to be an alien. Yes, I want to be green!”
On the rumors Justin Timberlake dumped her: “It’s definitely been weird and sort of bizarre to deal with. But you have to have a sense of humor about the whole thing. Honestly, I look at a magazine and they know more than I do. You do really have to just get into a place where you feel Zen about it – take a deep breath and know that somebody is going to be taking your picture while you’re going to the laundry and picking up your dry cleaning. ”
Biel on how she practices her Oscar speech: “The truth is, you really don’t make these movies thinking, ‘Oh, this one’s it. This is going to get me my Academy Award.’ You don’t think about that. You think, ‘I love this story, I love this character. I can’t wait to play this character.’ And then it comes out and people start talking about it, and it’s exciting. Privately you give this speech and everything, but you really think, ‘Whatever. If I win, amazing.’ I mean, I can’t even believe if that would happen. That would be incredible. But is that the goal for my work? ‘I must win an award’? No. You do think about it, but you don’t dwell on it, because it just sort of feels so untouchable and so unrealistic. You just feel like there’s no way you’d win, so whatever, you just laugh about it and have a good time. But I think I’d be lying to say that you don’t fantasize about it. And I enjoy working. There’s always a constant fear of the unknown as in ‘When am I next going to work?’ That’s always there. I try not to think about that too much, but it’s always a little bit there. When will I work and can I pay my bills? Is it going to be creatively interesting? That’s always there for me, a little bit, as much as I might try to say it’s not.”
[From The Independent]
The last part was my favorite, I swear. From her pontificating on winning an Oscar, to her being somewhat honest about her fears of never working again, it’s some good stuff. Here’s the thing – if she was actually a quality actress, I would find her Oscar talk interesting, and I would applaud her honesty for basically saying “sure, I want one of those!” But considering Jessica Biel thinks her extreme beauty is all she really needs to succeed in Hollywood, and she’s not beating down the door of any drama school, I find her answers sad and delusional. She’s not going to win an Oscar. And talking (with faux humility) about her career in the scope of any awards is something that should be reserved for when you actually are nominated for something. Because right now it just seems like Jessica just introduced “Academy Award” into a conversation about her voice work in an animated film.
Oh, and Justin spent the holidays partying without her.
Jessica Biel attends the Planet 51 premiere at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, CA on November 14, 2009. Credit: Fame.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcWpkboVwtsSsqqKbkZSvqrHLmKCYppWrsrOrw6iWmpeWnrmuq9OhoKejmaO0oLXTmK6ipJyUxKq6vqacmJmelLy0r8CrZg%3D%3D