Free spirit Jessica Biel

As with any period piece worth its sartorial salt, the costumes in Easy Virtue are as notable as the characters. Slipping on the artdeco-inspired designs — with their iconic gauzy fabrics, beads and feathers — helped Biel understand and inhabit her character. “Costumes have always transported me into another time and into someone else’s shoes,” she explains. “When I put the gowns on, I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I felt that I was able to dig down into those places where the venomous parts of me are — the characteristics I needed for Larita. It was so much easier than if I were sitting there in my own clothes.”

Biel also found inspiration in the film’s soundtrack, an innovative mix of Coward’s show tunes and contemporary pop. In fact, she makes her professional singing debut with vocal interpretations of Coward’s “Mad About the Boy” and Billy Ocean’s “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going.” “Singing is the one thing that gives you that, that feeling,” she once told the Toronto Sun. “You know that feeling? I just love it!”

'When I put the gowns on, I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I felt that I was able to dig down into those places where the venomous parts of me are — the characteristics I needed for Larita,' says Biel.

This summer, Biel gets to rekindle that mood when she takes to the stage to star in Guys and Dolls in Concert at the legendary Hollywood Bowl. She says that one day she might record an album, but for now her focus remains on film — both on the screen and off as president of her own company, Iron Ocean Films.

In May, Biel joined fellow actors Halle Berry, Jennifer Connelly and Jessica Alba as one of Revlon’s new global brand ambassadors. But it’s not all business for Biel. She volunteers with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and last year she and her father, Jon, launched the Make the Difference Network, an online children’s charity that links nonprofit organizations with donors. “It makes you feel incredible,” she says. “If you haven’t volunteered, it’s really an incredible feeling, and
it has made my life very full.”

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