Jessica Biel arrives for the premiere of "The Illusionist" in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006.(Fashion Wire Daily/Grant Lamos IV)
Los Angeles -What does being named the "Sexiest Woman Alive" by "Esquire" magazine do to a gal? In Jessica Biel's case, it sent her scurrying for a corset.
"I actually thought, when that whole thing went down, I was flattered and honored and a little shocked at the whole thing, but I thought, 'Oh, this is going to be great. I'm going to get so many jobs from this. This is great! Great, great, great!' But that wasn't really the case," said Biel at a Los Angeles press day promoting her new film "The Illusionist."
"I think that it wasn't negative at all, but it's kind of an unattainable sort of label. 'The Sexiest Woman Alive?' I mean, who can hang out with the sexiest woman alive?"
The stunning 24-year-old actress was shocked by the result of that 2005 anointing; instead of finding herself deluged with offers, Biel had to fight to get a job.
"I think that a lot of directors and people who are looking at projects and they were like, 'Well, I don't want to hire her.' I felt like I was sort of on this pedestal a little bit and it definitely didn't just open all of the doors for me that I thought that it would. I thought, 'Oh, wow. This is a huge honor. This is going to be huge for me.' And it really wasn't at all."
What it turned out to be, however, was a personal wake-up call, forcing Biel to focus on just where she wanted to go.
"I pursued 'The Illusionist,' I did. They basically said 'No' to me, that they didn't want to see me and that it wasn't going to happen and then it opened up for like a split second and I went in there and created an accent and did my work. They liked it, and I got a callback. So I came back dressed fully as someone from around 1900 as best as I could and went for it. I put all of my apples in the basket," she remembered.
And won the part of the alluring woman in "The Illusionist," the catalyst for the mysterious story of romance, magic, and intrigue set in the early 20th century that co-stars Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Rufus Sewell. But once she got the thing she wanted so badly, the worries began.
"It was a big step for me, to do a period piece," Biel admitted. "It was extremely nerve wracking, but I knew that if it terrified me that I should do it. I felt that it was very different from previous roles that I've done, modern roles. I felt that I was pretty much me in a lot of those roles, just changing it up a little bit, but with this I felt like I was stepping into the abyss."
Happily, the film, which opens August 18, is garnering rave reviews, as is Biel's image-shifting performance.
"I feel pretty excited about it," she giggled. "It's exactly what I've been wanting to do creatively and professionally. It's just a challenge for me and it's starting to help move me in the direction of what I really want to do more of - character pieces and story driven pieces and less of the action films.
"I think that it's my favorite film that I've worked on yet. It's fulfilled a creative bug that I had not been able to fill and in terms of my career I think that it's sort of a jumping off point. I also feel like it says to the world, 'Okay, so I can do this. Check it out. Take me seriously and please respect me because I'm not going to give up doing interesting things.'"
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