Jessica Alba has admitted that at the start of her career as an actress, she often felt objectified by Hollywood and grew bored of being typecast as the ‘sexy’ character. She didn’t want to be a sexy action woman, which is how she was marketed in her first big role ‘Dark Angel’. Instead she wanted to be more feminine and elegant:
“I had a show [Fox’s ‘Dark Angel’] that premiered when I was 19. And right away, everyone formed a strong opinion about me because of the way I was marketed. I was supposed to be sexy, this tough action girl. That’s what people expected…I felt like I was being objectified, and it made me uncomfortable. I wanted to be chic and elegant!”
Jessica has now gained confidence and loves to dress up, but only to please herself and not men or anyone else. She feels her new confidence has come with age, as well as motherhood which has helped her feel more grown-up:
“Now that I’m older, I’ve learned how to own it, but I’m still not very overt. There are some women who dress for men. I dress for myself. It took me some time to get here. Being a mom and feeling grown-up have helped. Now if I’m going to wear something short, it has to have a high neck or a little sci-fi toughness to it, an edge.”
Speaking on being recognized for her old sexy image, Jessica comments that she isn’t interested in being seen in that light, and would prefer not to be seen at all if she is only seen in this negative way:
“I like to get positive attention. But if I have a choice between someone noticing in a negative way what I’m wearing and going, What was she thinking? or someone not noticing what I’m wearing, I would rather not make a statement at all and just have a good conversation instead.”
