Jessica Biel on Being Drawn to Psychological Thrillers After ‘Candy’ and ‘The Better Sister’: “We’re All Capable of Goodness and Evil”

Jessica Biel has been drawn to psychological thrillers as of late.

“I have been [interested] in these types of projects with complicated humans, exploring the question: Why do people do the things that they do?” Biel tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re all capable of goodness and evil — it’s all inside of us — so it’s hard to say, ‘Well, I would never do that,’ because maybe I would.”

Noting she often turns that question on herself, asking, ” ‘What if I was in this situation?’ ” Biel adds, “I like exploring [those ideas for myself] in a safe place where nobody actually gets hurt and nobody’s life is actually ruined.”

That desired self-examination is reflected in her most recent TV projects: In 2022, she starred in Candy as the real-life Candy Montgomery, who was accused of killing her best friend with an ax in 1980. This year, she’s back on TV screens in Craig Gillespie’s The Better Sister, an adaptation of the book of the same name that focuses on estranged sisters (played by Biel and Elizabeth Banks) and how their lives intertwine when one of their husbands is murdered.

But there’s more to the Prime Video series than just murder and deceit, says the actress, whose credits also include The Sinner and 7th Heaven. “The show we made is about these two sisters,” Biel adds. “The interesting thing about my character, Chloe, is that she’s really so many things at once, kind of like we all are: her publicly facing persona and who she is privately … and I like that tension inside of someone, where two things are pulling on her at once. That’s intriguing to me.”

Who Chloe is privately is a woman who would do anything for her son. Being a mother to two boys herself, Biel could instantly relate to the character and the work-life balance Chloe grapples with. “It’s dealing with your own guilt and shame of being away, but also knowing that that’s important to you and you want to show your kid that it’s important to be out in the world. … Everything she does is all done for Ethan [played by Maxwell Acee Donovan], and I think every parent can relate to that on some level.”

Protecting her son, no matter the cost, gets tested when — spoiler alert — Ethan gets accused of murdering his father, Adam, played by Corey Stoll. As the show unfolds, more secrets get revealed, resulting in emotionally and physically taxing scenes for the actors.

“We rehearsed quite a lot with anything that was physical or re-creating violence, so there was a real understanding of what was going to happen, and a deep trust was built with everybody around those moments,” Biel, who also served as an executive producer on the series, explains about preparing for the more arduous sequences alongside Banks and Stoll. “Corey is an amazing actor and incredible scene partner who, even though he’s a really big person, you feel really safe with and know that he will support you, no matter what happens.”

Outside of rehearsals, Biel says, the actors got into the right mental state for their characters separately. And after the scenes wrapped, Biel would find herself in her car after a long drive home from work, her exhaustion taking over. “I would listen to meditation or my weird frequency music that I have on Spotify, and I would just shut it down until I got home, because once I got home, I had to be a mom.”

Biel is reteaming with Stoll on the upcoming Matchbox, based on the toy brand of the same name. The movie, which also stars John Cena, Sam Richardson and Danai Gurira, will be released in 2026. Production wrapped a few months ago.

When asked whether she has Stoll on speed dial now, Biel says with a laugh, “We do, basically, also because our sons fell in love. They didn’t know each other until Matchbox — his kids were in school when we were shooting The Better Sister, and for whatever reason, they just never hung out. But then when we were in Budapest, Corey brought his whole family, and our boys are really good friends. Now, we’re like parent buddies and we call each other so our kids can talk to each other on FaceTime … it was such a nice surprise, after having worked together for a long time in the summer, to then know that we’re going to continue to be friends … it’s just nice to repeat work with people that you trust.”

The actress, who is now in preproduction on Batso opposite Ethan Hawke and Daniel Radcliffe and Ursa Major alongside Kid Cudi, says Matchbox offered a kind of refresh after having done two psychological thrillers in a row.

“I feel like it’s time to branch out a little bit, because you can’t do the same thing forever, right?” says Biel. “Matchbox felt really cool and fun for me to do something completely outside of the psychological complex situation. So yes, I want to do other stuff, but I can’t help but always love to watch and explore a psychological drama.”