Jessica Alba’s big break in Hollywood was being cast as the leather-pants-wearing, motorcycle-riding, people-in-the-face-kicking, also-something-computery-doing lead in the short-lived Fox series “Dark Angel,” which was created by a fresh-off-Titanic-Oscar-winnig, already-eff-you-money-having, probably-distracted-by-weird-cameras-for-Avatar-building James Cameron. In a recent interview with Marie Claire, Alba talked a little about her career in Hollywood, and how that role in particular made her feel like she was being objectified.
“I had a show that premiered when I was 19. And right away, everyone formed a strong opinion about me because of the way I was marketed,” Alba, 31, tells the June issue of Marie Claire about her big break on Fox’s “Dark Angel,” in which she starred in from 2000 to 2002.
“I was supposed to be sexy, this tough action girl. … I felt like I was being objectified, and it made me uncomfortable. I wanted to be chic and elegant!” [NY Daily News]
I suppose that’s a fair point. I watched a few episodes of the show, and as far as I could tell the main plot of most of them was “Yo peep how hot this girl on the motorcycle is,” so if she felt a little weird about that at age 19, I can dig it. In the interest of fairness, though, I reached out to James Cameron for his side of the story about how the show marketed its then-teenaged star, and he replied “HEY LOOK AT MEY! I’M ON A PHONE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”, which, you know, is also something to consider.
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