NEED TO KNOW
- Jessica Biel appeared at the New York City premiere of her latest series, The Better Sister, on Tuesday, May 20
- She exclusively tells PEOPLE that she relates to her character’s hope for privacy while leading life in the public eye
- The Better Sister premieres on Thursday, May 29, on Prime Video
Jessica Biel always tries to find a personal connection to each of her characters.
At the premiere of the actress’ latest TV series, The Better Sister, she tells PEOPLE how she related to the privacy her character sought. Biel, 43, stars alongside Elizabeth Banks as sisters with a twisted past who find themselves at the center of a scandal.
At the Tuesday, May 20, New York City premiere, Biel explained portraying her various characters “is always cathartic no matter what I’m doing.”
“You’re finding something that is in your life that is parallel to something that you understand or a touch point that you can connect to that your character is going through,” she said. “Sometimes it’s abstract, sometimes it’s very linear.”
“I can understand sometimes feeling like you have to put on a happy face, or you know, smile and kind of grin and bear it.” The actress has been in the public eye since she was cast in 7th Heaven at 14 years old. “I’ve definitely done that in my past before.”
“I understand wanting to hide some of my personal life or you know, just keep something sacred,” the actress added. “I think my character does that in a very dysfunctional way, and I think I do it a little bit more functionally, I hope,” she concluded while laughing.
Based on Alafair Burke’s bestselling book of the same name, the upcoming Prime Video series sees Biel and Banks, as Chloe and Nicky, respectively. The two are pitted against each other when their shared husband — Banks’ ex and Biel’s current partner — winds up murdered.
As the whodunnit unfolds, the messy history Chloe and Nicky share with their dead husband Adam (Corey Stoll) makes them both look like suspects.
While Biel and Banks, 51, are at odds in the new series, the pair previously told PEOPLE that the chemistry came “naturally” between them.
“I mean, there was nothing anyone ever said that was a negative comment about Elizabeth,” Biel said. “Just fun, smart, does everything, so beyond incredible, funny, all the things that everybody knows about her from her work, all is of course true, but the other things like the nuance-y things that [I] didn’t know.”
Banks added, “I had only ever heard the loveliest things [about Biel].”
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All eight episodes of The Better Sister premiere on Thursday, May 29, on Prime Video.
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