JESSICA Biel has opened up about the racy photo shoot that almost got her booted off 7th Heaven.
Biel was just 14 years old when she landed the role as Mary Camden on the drama series which was made by Aaron Spelling’s production company.
The actor, 36, explained on the Awards Chatter podcast that as a teenager she found the “limitations” of starring on such a family-friendly drama a little hard to deal with.
“You can only do so much with a particular character specifically on a show like that,” she said.
“We really had to sort of stay in the boundaries of a somewhat religious family and teaching lessons, and when ya know you’re 16, 14, 15, 16, you get to a point when you’re like, oh man, I just want to do something different. I just want to cut my hair, and I just want to dye it a different colour and I can’t do all these things because I have this contract.”
At one stage during her time on the show Biel did cut her hair without getting approval from producers and she got into a lot of trouble.
“I had to apologise to everybody, which is sort of the theme of my experience on 7th Heaven,” Biel said on the podcast. “I was always apologising.”
But getting her hair cut without permission was nothing compared to when she posed topless for Gear magazine when she was just 17 years old. (The pictures weren’t released until after she’d turned 18.)
“I certainly had to apologise to Aaron Spelling,” Biel said about the controversial photo shoot.
“I think my entire crew and cast were, needless to say, shocked ... The worst part was I had to go back to work. The thing comes out and literally I had to go back to work that next morning ... They didn’t know if they should look me in the eye and I was just a mess.”
At the time some speculated that Biel was deliberately trying to get sacked from the family drama so she could pursue other acting gigs, but she told Awards Chatter that wasn’t the case.
“It definitely wasn’t a calculated move on my part,” Biel said.
“I think I was 17, I’m a woman now, I’m a grown up now. I’m sexy, ya know, this type of vibe and honestly, it just went a little awry. It definitely never was meant to be some shocking, exposing situation and whether it was my own sort of ya know ability to try to be my own person by myself, ya know, confident woman. I said yes to things that probably I should’ve said no to. It was just one of those things that got out of hand.”
Biel, who is married to singer/actor Justin Timberlake, most recently starred in the Netflix show The Sinner for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. The show has been renewed for a second season.
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