Jessica Biel Was Planning on 'Quitting' Hollywood Before Success of The Sinner

Jessica Biel has had her fair share of ups and downs in her career.

The actress, 42, founded her production company, Iron Ocean Studios, alongside producer Michelle Purple twenty years ago, and up until The Sinner, successes were few and far between for the pair.

“Doors did not open at all, even being in the business for so long,” Biel said on the May 15 episode of The Bright Side podcast. “I started it with [Purple] when I was twenty-two, and for the first ten years, we had almost no success at all. We had a very challenging time getting any story told.”

It was “a labor of love” for quite some time, Biel said, and only when they were “introduced to The Sinner and then built that show from the ground up,” did things start to change.

“When we were actually selling that show, Michelle and I looked at each other and she said, ‘If we don't sell this show, I'm quitting.’ And I said, ‘Me too, I'm quitting. I'm not doing this. I don't know – if this show doesn't sell, I don't know what people want, I don't know what to bring them. I don't understand this business anymore. I just don't get it anymore.’”

“And then we sold it in the room,” she continued of the USA network crime anthology series, which premiered in 2017 and ran for four seasons. “It was so weird.”

The production company has “absolutely” been “a very humbling experience,” Biel admitted, as does the acting part of her career.

“I don't find that my industry — or, being an actor or producer — is easy in any way, shape or form. It is so much blood, sweat and tears that you put into getting these projects made, and so many of the things we work on never, ever come to fruition.”

Biel produced The Sinner and starred in its first season, earning her first-ever Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role, which marked her first major return to the small screen since 7th Heaven.

In 2018, Biel told PEOPLE she felt like she was “floating on air” following her Emmy nomination. 

“It’s absolutely thrilling. I’m just so thankful to be thought of and included in this amazing group of women and great community of people. It’s just wonderful.”

Reflecting on the series compared to how her career started on TV, Biel said,  “Working in television now is such a different thing than it was back then. There’s so much opportunity and there are so many people that want to take risks and give women the kind of opportunities that we’ve been dying for and dreaming about our whole career.”

“[The Sinner] was one of those things. It felt freeing. It was an incredibly creatively open and free experience. It was nothing but a joy to film that show,” she continued of the series, which starred Bill Pullman as Detective Harry Ambrose as he investigated a different homicide each season. “Sometimes it’s sad that it’s over for me and my character at this moment, but it’s important that we stick to the integrity of the show. We’re lucky enough to move on and have a second season, so we really have to think thoughtfully about what that means and it doesn’t necessarily just mean throwing me back in because it worked the first time.”

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All four seasons of The Sinner can be streamed on Netflix.