Jessica Biel was so invested in making The Sinner that she was ready to quit Hollywood if the anthology series didn’t sell.
Biel, who earned an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for her season one role as Cora Tennetti and continued to executive produce the anthology series through its four seasons at USA, detailed on podcast The Bright Side how much working on the show meant to her.
The actress recalled that “doors did not open at all” for her production company, Iron Ocean, which she started with her business partner Michelle Purple 20 years ago. For the first 10 years, they experienced “almost no success at all” she said.
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Though the production company was able to make the 2012 film The Tall Man, Biel said it wasn’t until “many years later” that they were introduced to The Sinner, which turned out to be Iron Ocean’s first major venture into TV.
“When we were actually selling [The Sinner], Michelle and I looked at each other and she said, ‘If we don’t sell this show, I’m quitting.’ And I said, ‘Me too,'” recalled the 7th Heaven alum. “[I thought] ‘I’m quitting. I’m not doing this. If this show doesn’t sell, I don’t know what people want. I don’t know what to bring them. I don’t understand this business anymore.’ And then we sold it in the room.”
She then explained that having to prove herself as a producer was “basically like starting over” in her career and said that her company’s struggles were during a time when “nobody cared about women’s stories,” which hurt their possibilities of developing projects.
“It was a very humbling experience and it still continues to be humbling,” she added, noting that so many of the projects she’s worked on alongside Purple have “never come to fruition.”
The Sinner, which was based on Petra Hammesfahr’s novel of the same name, ran on the USA Network from 2017 until 2021.
Following The Sinner, Iron Ocean went on to produce Hulu’s Candy, which Biel also starred in, and Cruel Summer.
