Jessica Biel “kind of wants to squash” her son’s dream of being a musician and actor and doesn’t want him getting hired just because he has famous parents.
Jessica Biel “kind of wants to squash” her son’s dream of being a musician and actor.
The 44-year-old actress had mixed feelings when 11-year-old Silas, her oldest child with husband Justin Timberlake, was offered the chance to be in her new film Matchbox: The Movie because, while the youngster is very interested in following in the footsteps of his famous parents, she wants him to understand he has to work hard and not expect work “just because” of his family connections.
Speaking to Josh Smith on the Great Chat Show podcast, she said: ” I was talking to him, Silas, about, there are kids who work really hard, and they go to acting class, and they’re in theatre class, and they’re doing all the work.
“You can’t just take a part from that person just because you’re my son. Like, that’s not cool. We’re not doing that. So this is a special opportunity because it’s really teeny tiny. And, if you had a big monologue, I wouldn’t let him do it.
“You would have to earn that part because we’re not starting that. We’re not starting, ‘Oh, you just get handed a bunch of opportunities because you’re part of this family.’ Mm-mm, we’re not doing that.”
Jessica and Justin have worked hard to keep Silas and his six-year-old brother Phinneas out of the public eye, but their eldest son’s ambitions have made them tackle the subject a lot lately.
She added: “We’ve talked about [the business we’re in] a lot. And it’s a constantly evolving conversation, you know?
“Our son Silas, who’s 11 now — who’s in the movie [Matchbox] at the end — he’s a DJ, he’s incredible [at] music, he’s doing such cool things with music — he just has that, right? He just has that innately and is interested in that.
“And also has this comedy streak and this theatrical kind of funny, silly quality. And he’s been talking to us about, yeah, wanting to be an actor. So, this is coming up a lot.”
Matchbox producer Jules Daly asked Jessica if Silas would be interested in “a little part” in the film, to which the actress had reservations.
She explained: “And of course, I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’
“We try not to keep [our kids] in the sort of eye like this, we keep them away from all of this. And then, we thought, ‘Oh, you know, he’s coming to Budapest, and he’s going to be with me for seven weeks, like, what a nice thing to look forward to because he’s been talking about maybe being interested.’
“And of course, with your kids, you don’t want to squash their dreams, even though I kind of want to squash this one. I’m like, ‘Please don’t do this! Anything but this! It’s really hard!’”
Ultimately, she and Justin agreed Silas could take the role because of their friend Jules, who they “trust implicitly” and knew would “protect” them all.
Jessica Biel doesn’t want son to be a nepo baby
