The Sinner Daily

They have started filming Season 3 of The Sinner last week.

JESSICA BIEL REACTIONS AFTER THE NOMINATION

“On top of the world” this morning with her first Emmy nomination for USA mystery series The Sinner—in which she plays a psychologically complex killer with unclear motivations—Jessica Biel spoke with Deadline about the profound challenge that came with the character of Cora Tannetti. “What we had to really create was this multilayered, multifaceted, psychologically complex person who the audience couldn’t trust, and who she even herself couldn’t trust, which is such a mind explosion as you’re trying to guide this performance and create the thread of this show,” the actress said. Starring in only one season of the series while remaining intimately involved as an executive producer—alongside creative partner Michelle Purple—was a “real appetizing idea” for the actress, given the daunting time commitment involved in signing on to most television series. “Knowing that there’s eight hours or less of unraveling this human and this story is very, very appealing,” Biel said. “The limited series world is a really special place to work.” Deadline

Jessica Biel discusses earning her first Emmy nomination for 'The Sinner' In the wake of the tragic deaths of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade earlier this year, an even brighter media spotlight has shone on mental health issues, particularly depression and suicide — which gives even more resonance to Jessica Biel’s mother with ambiguous, violent tendencies, in USA Network’s “The Sinner.” On Thursday, Biel was nominated for an Emmy for lead actress in a limited series for her role as Cora — a complex character who is not only entertaining to play, she says, but has given her a vehicle to address some pretty weighty and topical issues.      Where are we catching you this morning and how did you find out you were nominated?            I live in L.A. and New York — but currently I’m in Amsterdam. It’s early evening here – my husband [Justin Timberlake] is on tour. So it was like 5 p.m. for me when I found out — I’d just gotten off a plane from London, I was sitting in the car with my kid.      Does “The Sinner,” and your character Cora in particular, feel especially timely now, in how it addresses issues of mental health? More so than last year, even?      I absolutely think it does. It felt topical to me at the time [we shot it]. And with everything that we’re battling culturally right now, everything in the news about mental health issues, it reminds me – and our whole creative team -- that this was really an incredibly perfect moment to step forward and talk about these challenging things that many of us are experiencing and which is taboo to talk about. Or we feel it is taboo. That’s why certain people don’t get help. So it feels important to shine a light on it and wrap our arms around it as a culture.      Is there a place to address issues regarding the #MeToo movement in your work, given you play such a strong female character, or do you prefer TV as escapism? My gut feeling is that this movement, the #MeToo movement, is so much bigger than us and our industry. It kind of crosses a lot of borders and is seeping in everywhere – which is a good thing. And we can’t help, as human beings and women, taking things that happened in our lives and finding connections through traumas we’ve experienced, and that our families and friends have experienced. And feel naturally inclined to put that into our work. As artists and creatives, those experiences, to work through that psychologically, is part of what we do.           How will the rest of your day unfold?     It’s 6:40 p.m. here right now. Justin’s flown off somewhere else for a show tomorrow, not in Amsterdam, so I’m gonna toast with my kid. LA Times

Jessica Biel Jokes She'll Celebrate Her First Emmy Nomination with a 'Hot Date' — Son Silas! Pop the champagne — and the orange juice! Jessica Biel‘s star role in USA Network’s The Sinner just landed her her first-ever Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie. So how’s she celebrating? “I’m going to go on a hot date with my son,” the actress tells PEOPLE. “We are going to cheers his orange juice in his sippy cup and my champagne in my champagne glass. And then I’m going to bed early! I’m like, Netflix and chilling. That’s my celebration.” Biel, 36, shares 3-year-old Silas Randall with husband Justin Timberlake, 37. When she found out about her nomination, she had just gotten off a plane with her son, who “was about to have a meltdown because his iPad was losing all battery.” “And then I got the phone call and I was like, ‘Nothing can go wrong. If the iPad dies and you freak out, it’s okay. It’s all fine!’ ” she says with a laugh. Biel says she called Timberlake “right away,” and his reaction to the exciting news was “so sweet.” “Justin loves the show,” she says. “You know, it’s an intense show. I think he was very moved by the story and by the importance of telling a story about trauma like this. He was always one of my biggest supporters early on trying to get this thing made. So he’s been there from the beginning, obviously.” “He said he’s really proud [of my nomination],” she adds. “He said he was confident that it was going to happen all along. So Silas and I are going to cheers tonight … he’s cheersing in place of Daddy tonight, which is super sweet.” People.com

The Sinner Season 2 Trailer #2 : A New Story | USA Network

Two years ago, Jessica Biel was raising her baby boy with husband Justin Timberlake in their Hollywood Hills home when the actress got hooked on a book. Universal Cable Productions sent her a thriller by German crime novelist Petra Hammesfahr, and once Biel started reading “The Sinner,” she couldn't put it down. “Every time I thought I knew where the story was going, it surprised me,” she says. “I liked the book's subversive quality. It was an impressive read.”

Those subversive elements, embodied in the deeply damaged title character, proved irresistible to Biel. She explains, "I hadn't worked on screen for a year, so I was ready to take the knife and let my guts spill out everywhere because I had all this creative energy that needed to be expelled. This was a leap into the darkest of the dark."

On this day, the sun streaming into a penthouse at AKA Beverly Hills, where Biel, wearing a violet pantsuit with a cream coat draped over her shoulders, cheerfully details her deep dive into “The Sinner.” “It was exciting to play this unreliable character who lies out of self-preservation and because she's afraid to expose parts of herself she believes are heinous and shameful.”

A hit for USA Network last summer, the limited series earned Biel a Golden Globe best actress nomination for her nuanced portrayal of mom/wife/shattered soul Cora. The character's psychotic break happens in the first episode. During a picnic by the lake with her husband and young son, Cora gets enraged by a loud song and abruptly stabs a stranger to death in a blood-spattered rage.

Why'd she do it?

Seeking answers, the eight-episode thriller gradually reveals Cora's toxic backstory, contaminated with psychologically abusive parents, a sickly sister and predatory men in masks. “Other people can do whodunit really well,” Biel says. "We're interested in the conceit of the ‘whydunit,’ so we peel, peel, peel away. It's about the psychological peel.”

Biel's star turn in “The Sinner” represents a startling departure for the 36-year-old actress, first introduced to TV audiences as a minister's wholesome teenage daughter in The WB's long-running family drama “7th Heaven.” She later appeared in the 2003 horror reboot of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” followed by an eclectic mix of action flicks, rom-coms, guest roles and voiceover gigs.

With “The Sinner,” Biel broke new ground by probing a character she has almost nothing in common with. “Growing up totally normal, I had cool, loving parents, went to school. I worked professionally, which was a little bit unusual, but in terms of dynamic there's nothing to really say except ‘Thumbs up.’ And I don't want to play that! It's boring! I want to find characters I'm terrified to portray.”

My entry point for Cora was partly that we're both moms, so I had compassion for her in that way.

 Jessica Biel  

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Biel did manage to identify with Cora in one regard. “My entry point for Cora was partly that we're both moms, so I had compassion for her in that way,” she says. “But the attraction also had to do with the fact that Cora has so many layers. Putting together all this trauma and religious zealousness and abuse that I don't know anything about, that really intrigued me as an actress.”

Cora's fitfully remembered past includes a complicated relationship with her bossy younger sister Phoebe (Nadia Alexander), whose options are constrained because of a congenital heart defect. Incest ensues. Biel says, “That scene was odd to film and uncomfortable to watch. But Phoebe needs that physical release because she doesn't feel that she'll ever be touched or loved or caressed. Cora can't say no. She did it out of love.”

Beyond her contributions as an actress, Biel exercised considerable measure of creative control over “The Sinner” through her Iron Ocean Productions company. She and producing partner Michelle Purple enlisted show runner Derek Simonds (“The Astronaut Wives Club”) to create the series and personally pitched their concept to network execs. Biel, who continues as an executive producer for “The Sinner” Season 2, which will star Carrie Coon, liked being listened to.

“It's such a powerful feeling to have people look to you and say ‘What do you think?’ Actors often don't have any input at all, but I'd been living with ‘The Sinner’ longer than almost anybody, so I had a point of view about the material. This show definitely felt like my baby.”

Take a look at the first trailer of season 2 of The Sinner starring Bill Pullman and Carrie Coon.