Jessica Alba Recalls Developing 'Warrior' Persona as Young Actress to Deter Hollywood 'Predators'

Jessica Alba Recalls Developing 'Warrior' Persona as Young Actress to Deter Hollywood 'Predators'
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Jessica Alba is recalling a time when she had to develop a "tough" persona to feel protected in Hollywood.

On the newest episode of Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?, the 41-year-old actress and entrepreneur addressed the host's question about whether "the degree to which you were objectified as a sex symbol" was something that "bothered" her as a young star.

While Alba replied saying she doesn't "think that there's anything wrong" with "owning your sexuality" and that she "understood it as a business decision and a strategy" at the time, she still was "nervous" because she had to go against her natural personality.

"And how did you deal with that?" asked Chris Wallace.

"I was a warrior," the Sin City star said. "I put up that energy. ... I was really tough, man."

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Jessica Alba at the Avco Cinema in Westwood, California
Jessica Alba at the Avco Cinema in Westwood, California

Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Jessica Alba in 1999

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Alba said she was "quite uncomfortable in my own skin" at the time, and that "it wasn't until I became a mom that I really started to even see myself as a woman or a sexual being or someone who owned her power and her femininity."

But before that, "I felt like I was very much having to put up this armor of masculine and masculine energy," said the Honest Company co-founder. "So I wouldn't be preyed on, because there were a lot of predators in Hollywood from [the time I was] age 12 to 26."

To that end goal of putting up a "warrior" front, she cursed "like a sailor," Alba recalled. "I think I tried to make myself as unavailable as possible, so that I wouldn't be taken advantage of," she told Wallace, 75.

Jessica Alba at Miu Miu Fall 2023 Ready To Wear Runway Show on March 7, 2023 at the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council in Paris, France.
Jessica Alba at Miu Miu Fall 2023 Ready To Wear Runway Show on March 7, 2023 at the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council in Paris, France.

Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Jessica Alba

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Speaking about focusing more on business than acting in recent years, the mother of three said her "priorities shifted a bit" after she had her first child, daughter Honor, now 14.

"I thought about my purpose differently. And I really started to assess what was bringing me joy and what I felt, at that time, [was] a little bit … draining," Alba explained.

She also said she "felt a bit tapped out with entertainment," noting that it was a time before the #MeToo movement and adding, "This is a very different Hollywood today than it was 14 years ago."

"I just took a step back and kind of let it do its thing," Alba said. "The town was very different. And a lot more toxic masculinity ran a lot of the decision-making."

New episodes of Who's Talking to Chris Wallace? are available Friday mornings on HBO Max, and air Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CNN.