Actress Jessica Biel, who rose to fame playing Mary Camden on the family drama series “7th Heaven,” has revealed that she once contemplated leaving the entertainment industry, describing her time in Hollywood as a “very humbling experience.” In addition to serving as an executive producer on the series, which aired for four seasons from 2017 to 2021, Ms. Biel also starred in the first season of the show, garnering Emmy and Golden Globe nods in 2018.
However, as she recounted on the podcast, her road to success was not without its difficulties. “Doors did not open at all,” she explained. “Even being in the business for so long, I mean, I’ve had this production company with my partner, Michelle Purple, for 20 years—this year has been 20 years.
I started it with her when I was 22, and for the first 10 years, we had almost no success at all. We had a very challenging time getting any story told.” Years later, the duo was introduced to “The Sinner,” a show the actress said she and Ms.
Purple, a film producer, built “from the ground up.” In the first season, which is based on German crime writer Petra Hammesfahr’s 1999 novel “Die Sünderin,” Ms. Biel plays Cora Tannetti, a housewife and mother who brutally murders a stranger on the beach, seemingly without any motive.
The subsequent seasons follow the detective on the case, Harry Ambrose, portrayed by actor Bill Pullman, as he works to solve other puzzling homicides. “So when we were actually se.