Good looks: a burden for Jessica Biel

Can be stereotypical good looks a burden for being taken seriously in a movie career? Or beauty and hotness are just the prerequisites to make it big in Hollywood?

"It's not easy being Jake Gyllenhaal, what with everyone falling in love with you all over the place. Blue-eyed and muscular, with perfect brown hair, thick eyebrows, and consistently heavy stubble, the 24-year-old combines an unforced masculinity with a boyish openness and curiosity". Source: men.style.com


"That beauty comes with a cost," says the filmmaker, who directed her in the comic "Easy Virtue" opening Friday in New York. So -- don't hate her because she's beautiful.
Or because her boyfriend is Justin Timberlake.

Her movie debut, at 15, was opposite Peter Fonda in the gritty indie "Ulee's Gold"; she was good in "The Illusionist," excellent as a handicapped veteran in "Home of the Brave" and took big risks in the dark comedy "Nailed" and the arty drama "Powder Blue."

Yet to many fans, she's still remembered as "that girl from the TV show," or the officer in the tight flight suit in "Stealth" or -- worse -- simply as the pretty woman on JT's arm for the last few years. She's still a beauty waiting for her breakthrough -- like Charlize Theron the year before "Monster" -- and while she's too smart to ask for sympathy, a little understanding would be nice.
"There is that old thing, 'Oh she's a beautiful woman, she has no brains', Biel says, stealing a half-hour to chat in a hotel room after a rushed afternoon of group interviews. "There's that sense sometimes of, 'Just give me a second to talk to you, please? You know, I actually have something to say!'"
Biel grew up in Boulder, Colo., the daughter of an entrepreneur and a stay-at-home mom, with a quintessentially American, essentially diverse heritage -- German, English, Irish, French and Choctaw -- that blessed her with the looks that would soon translate into modeling contracts and TV commercials.
"Now, acting's a cathartic experience, releasing emotions that you're feeling or stuff that you're dealing with, just letting it all out and going -- bleeeeeeeeeagh! -- all over the place" she says. "But at first, it was just fun to make believe you were somebody else, and then make them believe it, too. Make them believe that you were this sad, messed-up Goth girl. And then get them to hire you."

"London" opened and closed. "Home" opened, closed, opened again -- and then closed again. "Powder Blue" played for barely a week this month before heading straight to video. "Nailed" was eventually shut down, after endless money problems, and sits, unfinished, on a shelf.

"All you can ever do is cross your fingers and say, 'Okay, I've done my job, now please do yours and get this finished and edited well and out there', she says. 
When she is sitting at home, watching those movies, it's often with Timberlake. Inseparable but not insufferable, they show up at each other's events -- Biel was a happy, laughing witness to the dress rehearsals for his latest "Saturday Night Live" appearance -- but largely keep out of the gossip columns.

"That's because we don't do anything interesting," she says with a laugh. "We just hang out at home. ... Really, my job is wonderful, and I'm grateful for it and I love it. But it's my job, not my lifestyle. When I'm on a set, it can be working working working like crazy, up all hours, doing nutso things. But after that, I'm just mellowing out, seeing my friends and family, keeping on a good workout schedule. ... When I'm not working, I live a really normal life." Source: www.nj.com

Today the Easy Virtue soundtrack is available for purchase in the US.