This month Jessica Biel was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her role in the addictive Netflix series The Sinner. As well as being the star and executive producer of the hit show, Biel also owns a restaurant in West Hollywood, has a two-year-old son named Silas and plays golf in her spare time.
With such a hectic schedule, Biel, 35, relies on her husband Justin Timberlake to keep her grounded. The couple was introduced in 2007 at the Golden Globes by a mutual friend. Not long after, Biel and Timberlake met up at a friend’s birthday party, and, to Biel’s horror, they were invited to join a dance-off. “Obviously, it wasn’t a real dance-off. Obviously, we all know who’s winning,” she says. But, Biel thought, I can’t be the girl who’s not going to dance just because he’s the best ever at that.
Her moves must have impressed Timberlake because the pair tied the knot in Italy in 2012. “We really have a lot of similarities,” Biel says of Timberlake, noting that they were both child actors from solid, loving families. “We believe in loyalty, honesty. We like to have fun. Also, in the business, we’re very career-oriented, and you have to be a little selfish. I understand that about my peers – about being focused and driven – and if you have someone who shares the same values as you, it’s like, ‘Score!’”
So when it came time for Biel to find her inner murderer in The Sinner, Timberlake was fully supportive. “There wasn’t a minute where he was weird or uncomfortable with it,” says Biel. “I think he just saw the potential, and how excited I was to do it.”
In The Sinner, Biel plays Cora – a mild-mannered mum who becomes a howling killer. At the end of an intense day filming, she switches off by turning to Timberlake and Silas, who visit her regularly on set. “I’m really good at leaving it all behind,” she says. “When the scene is over, I’m like, ‘Wipe the tears. What’s for lunch?’”
The February issue of marie claire starring Jessica Biel is on sale Thursday.
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