Jessica Biel Opens Up About Relating to Her Character in The Better Sister

Published: May 21, 2025

Jessica Biel attended the New York City premiere of her latest TV series, The Better Sister, on Tuesday, May 20. In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Biel revealed how she relates to her character's hope for privacy while leading life in the public eye.

“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 43-year-old actress said. “I've definitely done that in my past before.”

Biel, who has been in the public eye since she was cast in 7th Heaven at 14 years old, added, “I understand wanting to hide some of my personal life or you know, just keep something sacred.”

The actress stars alongside Elizabeth Banks as sisters with a twisted past who find themselves at the center of a scandal in The Better Sister, which premieres on Thursday, May 29.

Relating to Her Character

Biel explained that 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 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.

Co-Starring with Elizabeth Banks

Biel and Banks, 51, are pitted against each other in the new series, but 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.