By Kerrie Davies
January 04, 2009 12:00am
JESSICA Biel’s pet project heads a celebrity roster at this week’s Bondi Flickerfest, which she produced and stars in.
It seems unusual for a star like Jessica Biel to be happy running around on set and making coffee. However, for once, Biel was thrilled to get her hands dirty on set instead of being the glamorous girl.
The actress and girlfriend of Justin Timberlake co-produced and stars in Hole in the Paper Sky, which premieres in Australia at Bondi’s Flickerfest’s celebrity shorts program (January 14).
Complementing the traditional competition section of the annual short film festival, celeb shorts also boasts Kate Hudson.
Despite her current fame, Biel describes Paper Sky as her new calling card, a chance to show people what she can do outside their expectations of her.
Biel first starred in the TV series Seventh Heaven, then rose above the Texas Chainsaw Massacre to star with Orlando Bloom in Elizabethtown and The Illusionist with Edward Norton.
Next was a comic turn in Adam Sandler’s I now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
“Hole in the Paper Sky is the first short film I’ve ever done and the first time I’ve produced,” says Biel, proud of her love project.
“We had no money and my co-producer and I were pulling in favours from everyone we knew.
“I was dealing with things I’ve never had to be involved in before: mediating fights on set, rewriting the script.
“I was doing the catering and the coffee. It was a crazy seven days but I really enjoyed it.”
Biel also stars in Paper Sky as Karen, an animal loving lab assistant.
The script appealed to Biel’s passion for animal rights and the actress supports rescue programs in Colorado, where she grew up, and LA where she now lives.
As Biel wears a severe bob wig, buttoned up lab coat and glasses in Paper Sky, fans of her famed beauty and body should wait for her upcoming film, Powder Blue, in which she’s a dirty dancer working for a strip club owner played by Patrick Swayze.
“It’s always fun to look different and really create a different person other than yourself physically and emotionally,” she says.
She worked with Swayze just before he was diagnosed with cancer.
“He was so carefree and helpful,” Biel says. “He’s an incredibly nice man. We talked about Dirty Dancing a lot and he gave me lots of tips.”
Biel’s other upcoming project is the film adaptation of Noel Coward’s play, Easy Virtue (released in Australia on March 19). She wore another hat in that film too, singing Mad About the Boy on the soundtrack.
“I started out in musical theatre,” she says, all too aware she’s an actress known for more her looks and relationship with Timberlake than her singing.
“Me singing on the soundtrack was an accident,” she says.
“The director of Easy Virtue (Australia’s Stephan Elliott) heard me humming around set and asked me if I’d like to do it, so I said yes! It was recorded quickly. So no, Justin didn’t help me … I do jump in and do things,” she muses.
“You need that sort of personality to be in this business. One day you aren’t working and the next day on a plane ready to throw yourself into anything. It (acting) is a crazy occupation, so you have to be comfortable to not know what you are doing all the time.”
One thing that is constant in her life is Timberlake, although she’s not keen to elaborate on her relationship apart from confirming she’s practicing her golf, which a favourite pastime of her beau.
“It’s a hard game,” she sighs. “I’m working on it. I’ve been bitten by the bug, that’s for sure.”
Flickerfest runs from Jan 9-18 at Bondi Pavilion before moving around NSW and interstate. www.flickerfest.com.au
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