"When we started the shoot I was like, 'Wow, I'm older and sexier -- I'm hot!'” she said. “And then as the day drew on and I started to take off more clothes, things started to get more uncomfortable. I just knew in my gut. I was thinking, 'This is wrong -- you are starting to do things you don't want to.'
“But I went along with things because I was arrogant and didn't have anyone looking out for me. I went by myself, no real guardian apart from an old manager. My dad did show up at one point but I was like, 'No,you stay over there. I'm doing this shoot. I'm cool.'"
When the shoot was over, Jessica was devastated and she realized that she'd made a huge mistake by allowing the photographer to shoot her topless. She called her father in tears, too embarrassed to tell him about the photos, and she later attempted to stop the pictures from getting released.
“My family went through the wringer. I was truly, deeply embarrassed and humiliated. And I had no one to blame but myself.”
Classic TV Beauties 1990s Countdown
JESSICA BIEL as Mary Camden in "7th Heaven"
Years before he was posing provocatively on the cover of practically every men's magazine in America, Jessica was the sweet and innocent Mary on this family TV show.
Jessica launched her career playing a pure and virginal teenager, a minister's daughter who became rebellious and disobedient as she became older.
Centered around the Camdens, a cleric's family living in California, “7th Heaven” was praised for emphasizing respect for parental authority, family values and education. During its run (1996-2007) “7th Heaven” was cited among the top 10 family-friendly shows by the Parents Television Council.
It was the longest running series that has ever aired on The WB TV network and was the longest running family drama in TV history, running longer than both “Little House on the Prairie” and “The Waltons.”
"7th Heaven” was the network's No. 1 rated show for eight seasons, although it only broke the Top 100 prime-time network shows one season.
Tired of her image as a goody-two shoes girl, Jessica shocked her employers and many of her “7th Heaven” fans when she posed topless with her hand placed over her nipples for a 2000 cover of Gear magazine. She was 17 at the time of the photo shoot.
"I had been the pretty, good wholesome girl in '7th Heaven' for almost three seasons and I'd had enough of being virginal. I was asked to do this shoot for the magazine and, because I was young, had some money, a little fame and because I thought I knew best, I decided to go ahead with it. I thought I could look after myself,” she said in a 2009 GQ article.
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The "7th Heaven" producers were enraged at Jessica; executive producer Aaron Spelling called the photos “child pornography.”
During the fifth season Jessica's character became rebellious and was written out of the show, sent to her grandparents in Buffalo. She returned home in Season 6 but when creative differences between Jessica and the producers escalated, Mary left the show to become a flight attendant, and Jessica made limited appearances during the final four seasons of “7th Heaven.”
Jessica's beauty opened doors for her in Hollywood and has often overshadowed her acting talents. Since she became an adult she has become hugely popular with men's magazines. In 2005 Esquire named 23-year-old Jessica as its “Sexiest Woman Alive.” Two years later she topped the list of Stuff's 100 Sexiest Women.
She admitted, though, that she struggles with “body-image issues every day. Shooting the bikini scene [for the movie 'Stealth'] was stressful. Everyone has areas they're not comfortable with, and mine are bum, thighs, and legs. So having those areas exposed... it was like 'Okay, I'm gonna try to be cool with it.'”
Of the GQ cover shoot, she told the website www.parade.com, "It's never nearly as sexy doing it as it appears in a magazine. You're sort of laughing through the photo shoot because it's funny to take yourself so seriously.
“I could never be a model because you're always standing in an awkward position and your back hurts, and you're wearing heels lying on a rock or in the sand or something. You're like, 'This is weird. I'm uncomfortable. I'm itching. I need to scratch.' So I would much rather laugh and do a funny scene.”
Born in Ely, Minnesota, Jessica spent most of her childhood in Boulder, Colorado.
“There's this impression of me that I spent my childhood jumping into streams and clambering over rocks -- which I did a bit of -- but it was my parents who steered us,” she told GQ. “They wanted to go camping, so we went camping. They wanted to hike, so we hiked.
“I remember being in the car with my mother going down Sunset Boulevard when I got the call from the studio telling me I'd got it [7th Heaven],” she told GQ. “I'd been traveling up to LA and doing the pilot seasons for three years, since I was 11, but hadn't gotten anywhere. We had to stop the car and pull over we were crying that hard."
At age 15 Jessica starred in her first feature film as Peter Fonda's granddaughter in “Ulee's Gold.” She won a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film, Supporting Young Actress.
After her stint in “7th Heaven,” Jessica enrolled in Tufts University, studying script writing.
“I needed a break,” she said. “I'd been working in that adult environment since I was 14. and I wanted to cut my hair, get a tattoo... be a normal kid for a while.”
Hollywood beckoned her to return so Jessica abandoned the coed life after only three semesters.
“I felt very scared that I was gonna be forgotten about [in Hollywood],” she said in a 2005 interview with Cosmopolitan magazine. “Looking back, I wish I would've just gotten it done with. It was hard watching my friends graduate without me.”
Jessica moved into film work after her return to acting in 2002. Her most notable films have included “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” “The A Team,” “New Year's Eve,” and “Rules of Attraction.”
“For a long time, I wasn't thought of as anyone with any credibility in the film world,” she said in a Marie Claire interview. “Everybody is tramping through the swamp every day in the business...
“As much as I hate auditioning – it's so hard and awkward – it's way better to walk out of that room and win a role because of what you did.”
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"Of course, I really just wanted to hang out at the mall and look at boys, like most girls my age. I think when I die, rather than being buried, I want my ashes scattered among the mountains."
Jessica took singing lessons with her mother, and after watching Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” she was hooked on the idea of becoming a movie star.
At age 12 she attended The International Modeling and Talent Association's conference in Los Angeles and was signed by a talent agency. She appeared in print ads, as well as TV commercials for Pringles potato chips.
Two years later she won the role of Mary Camden.
