“I’m turning a corner”: the 2005 role Jessica Alba called the “most fulfilling” of her career
If, like me, you grew up in the 2000s, you’ll remember Jessica Alba being everywhere, starting her career at the young age of 11, when she won a competition in Beverley Hills where the prize was free acting lessons, which encouraged her to pursue the profession full-time.
Two years later, she had her first TV and movie roles under her belt, and by the time she was 19, she was the lead on the TV show Dark Angel, which only boosted her profile further, but, as is the case with child stars, growing up in the public eye comes with many pitfalls, and Alba had to contend with everything from over-sexualisation in the media to being kidnapped by a crazed stalker.
Ironically, from a career perspective, it took a lot for producers and audiences to believe her in more mature roles, having spent so long accustomed to her as a child star.
Then, according to an interview with Digital Spy in 2010, there came the one film that helped her transform her image.
“I felt that now I’m really a woman,” she said. “I’m turning a corner from playing girls into women. I look back at my career and thought about the most fulfilling experience I had had in films, and really the most fulfilling was Sin City with Robert Rodriguez.”
Released in 2005, Sin City is the first big-screen adaptation of Frank Miller’s eponymous comic book series, with the film split into four distinct narratives across six separate segments, each one following a new protagonist (or antagonist, depending on how you look at things) as they attempt to survive the brutal, monochrome landscape of the titular settlement.
Alba’s character, Nancy Callahan, was targeted by a ruthless serial killer in her youth, and when we pick up the story in later life, the killer has returned, so alongside the police officer, played by Bruce Willis, who rescued her as a child, Nancy must literally fight for her life.
It’s not like Alba hadn’t been in ‘mature’ movies prior to Sin City, starring in a thriller called Paranoia, but that was only released on video, and her filmography up to that point was mainly made up of lighter offerings like the dance movie Honey or the absurd teen romcom Never Been Kissed.
Sin City marked a major change in tone, although it was somewhat overshadowed by her appearance in Fantastic Four just a few months later, and while not everyone enjoyed their time on the film, it clearly meant a lot to Alba that she was given the chance to spread her wings.
