Jessica Alba: "I Don't Like Being the Center of Attention" in Movies
Credit: Elle
Jessica Alba has checked her ego at the door.
In the December issue of Elle magazine (on stands Nov. 17), the 29-year-old actress reveals she's perfectly content to fade into the background on film.
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"I'm shy. I don't like being the center of attention," Alba, who next stars in Little Fockers (in theaters Dec. 22), says. "But when I do comedy, I lose all inhibition and introspection. I no longer care."
The actress -- who welcomed daughter Honor with husband Cash Warren in 2008 -- cites motherhood as the main reason for wanting to shift the focus away from herself onscreen.
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"The time I'm not spending with my kid has to be worth it, so when I sat down with my agents after I was ready to go back to work, I told them: It's all about the directors," she tells Elle. "Now I prefer I'm not the lead. it's a totally different approach -- way better."
Perhaps Honor isn't the only reason she's gunning for less screen time; Alba admits she struggled with criticism she received early on in her career.
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"I know I haven't been swimming in the deep end with some of the movies I've done. I wasn't trying to. I knew what they were," she acknowledges. "I'd been so afraid of criticism ever since I was young. Every time I'd get a critique or some redirection, I'd always just take it very personally, but now I have no problem with it. It's just a chance to try things a different way."
