You know how there’s this movement to reflect back on celebrities and gossip narratives from the recent past and try to learn how society, media and Hollywood f–ked over so many famous women? We’ve done it with Britney Spears, Megan Fox, Jennifer Lopez and more? Well, I kind of wonder if Jessica Alba is due for a review. People used to really hate her and treat her like a airheaded bimbo. Now she’s in her 40s, and the company she founded a decade ago, The Honest Company, has been valued at $1.4 billion. Jessica largely stepped away from acting to focus on the Honest Company and it’s been well worth her time. Alba covers the latest issue of Glamour UK, and this was one of the better interviews I’ve read this year? Some highlights:
Her ambition: “You have to be relentless. I don’t have a fear of failure. I have the opposite: I have a fear of, ‘If I didn’t try, [then] what’s the point?’”
Her transition from actress to mogul: “I approached it the way I approached Hollywood, which was that I just did it. I grew up in survival mode. It was almost sort of what I was born into. My parents didn’t have a safety net, they were living paycheck to paycheck. And so the mentality of ‘tomorrow’s not guaranteed’… For me, I was like, ‘I got to do everything I can to keep my head above water.’ I think because no one had any expectations that I would be successful, how could you fail? I wasn’t set up – no one was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re going to be…’ They were just like, ‘Here’s your life.’ And I was like, ‘This is some bulls–t. I want a better life than that. I don’t want to be in survival mode all the time.’”
Marrying Cash Warren when she was pregnant with Honor: “We eloped and I think I was nine months pregnant! It wasn’t planned. It was literally, ‘Honey, do you have anything to do this morning?’ And he was like, ‘No.’ So I said, ‘Should we go to the courthouse and get married?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah.’ And then I said, ‘Can we get waffles afterwards because I have a doctor’s appointment? Will you come to my doctor’s appointment?’ And that’s how it happened!”
The secret to marriage: “I think just over-communicating, not letting things build up for too long.”
The movement in Hollywood for more diversity is basically just business: “It’s a business initiative for people now that they realise how much money they can make. It’s something they care about, which is fine. How they get there really doesn’t matter. You’re like, “Great. Now you realise there’s a whole group of folks that you just frankly left out of the conversation because you just didn’t even see them. They were there the whole time.” And I guess it’s the people in charge. However they get there, it really genuinely doesn’t matter. I just think more for the younger people who are coming up, who are going to be our future leaders, it’s important for them to see the world on screen, or in stories, in the dreams that we create as entertainers; it reflects the world that they’re in.
Her thoughts on the Marvel franchises: “Even if you look at the Marvel movies – that’s the biggest driver of fantasy and what’s happening right now in entertainment, because it’s sort of the family thing – it’s still quite Caucasian,” she says before referring to when she starred in the Fantastic Four Marvel franchise in the ’90s. “I would say I was one of the few back in the day… And it was before Marvel was sold to Disney… but it’s still quite… more of the same.”
Feminism: “I’ve identified as a feminist since I could remember identifying as anything. I believe that women should be equal to men. And so does my dad. My dad’s a feminist, too.”
She’s frustrated by the sorry state of American maternity rights: “That is why a lot of women fall out of the workforce because there is no real support system in our country. And there’s a ton of guilt and shame and bias, people in power who just simply have no idea what it’s like and what’s going on.”
I’m sure people will be mad about her Marvel answer. But… she’s not wrong? Obviously, Black Panther is a huge deal, as is Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson. I liked The Eternals too, that was a cool, inclusive cast. But yeah, Marvel is, historically, very Caucasian. Kevin Feige knows it too, which is why there is currently more of an effort to increase diversity in front of and behind the cameras. I like her answer about how the diversity that’s happening now in Hollywood is mostly about money, about studios seeing the chance to widen their market, but in the end it doesn’t matter because people deserve to see themselves represented on screen.
Cover & IG courtesy of Glamour UK.
I don’t want to take away from her comments on racism in the industry or the dismal state of maternity care in the US. Those comments are excellent.
but to me, this seems like an opportunistic rebrand from her side. Time to girl boss feminism it up for the $$$
I remember her slut shaming other women while playing into her ‘sexy girl’ character. Her “unparalleled work ethic” comments from recently also rub me the wrong way. The toxically positive “No one owes you anything, just work hard and you’ll get there” is also drenched in privilege.
I’m open to her changing, but so far all of this seems self motivated.
And her acting is horrible!
Total with you on this also. As a latina woman i can tell you when there is real talent you can be successful ex Penelope Cruz . Alba might be a good business woman but no a good actress
Penelope Cruz is European, not a Latina. She’s Spanish.
Totally agree with you on this. For a good chunk of her career, she definitely happily played into her racial ambiguity and was happy to be perceived as white to financially benefit. I get it, sometimes u have to play within the messed up system but dont come now after the fact and try to make it seem that you were the great diversifier back in the day and you’re so disappointed to see things havent changed. In the 2nd fantastic 4 movie, i believe they made her character blonde with blue eyes. Wondering if she fought them at all on that decision. It’s all a moneygrab for all of them, herself included. She’s talked about the fact that she only did acting for the money, which makes sense considering she cant act worth a damn and her movies are cringe at best.
She may or may not be a good actress. But like she stated, she has one life and she tried. Which gave her the seed money to start her business. And now she is a mogul. Good on her!
To be fair she was saying stuff like this 15 years ago. Nobody took her seriously though. She has always been an ally to POC and considered herself a person of color even though she could play white roles on occasion
ORLY?
What Jessica Alba has said in the past:
“Alba is my last name and I’m proud of that. But that’s it. My grandparents were born in California, the same as my parents, and though I may be proud of my last name, I’m American. Throughout my whole life, I’ve never felt connected to one particular race or heritage, nor did I feel accepted by any. If you break it down, I’m less Latina than Cameron Diaz, whose father is Cuban. But people don’t call her Latina because she’s blonde.
I’ve got cousins galore. Mexicans just spread all their seeds. And the women just pop them out.
My grandfather was the only Mexican at his college, the only Hispanic person at work and the only one at the all-white country club. He tried to forget his Mexican roots, because he never wanted his kids to be made to feel different in America. He and my grandmother didn’t speak Spanish to their children. Now, as a third-generation American, I feel as if I have finally cut loose.
My whole life, when I was growing up, not one race has ever accepted me, … So I never felt connected or attached to any race specifically. I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don’t speak Spanish. So, to say that I’m a Latin actress, OK, but it’s not fitting; it would be insincere.”
It’s cool to lean in now. So she is. But I can’t take her seriously. Sorry. Now if she were to address those comments and say she she either really regretted it because she just wasn’t informed enough or was coming from a place of privilege and perhaps felt as though she had to say them so that she would stay employed, because many women have had to deny their identities to stay employed, I’d have massive respect for her.
Eh. She said the work ethic nonsense last year.
She has historically talked about how she only has male business partners. How she made employees cry.
How she didn’t bend her morals and ethics to succeed like other women who dated men for fame.
Her whole vibe is 90s liberal feminist aka women can do man things but typical women stuff still sucks. We don’t need more female overlords or billionaires.
Also holy hell that comment about ‘Mexicans’ is raciiiiist
@ PaperclipExtrordinaire, all of Abbas comments that you posted are troublesome at the very least. She was never an actor of caliber and her only staying power has been her marriage to Warren. I find all of her comments to be a blanket admission that she wanted to bury her Hispanic heritage. Her schtick that she didn’t fit in with any crowds is purely to further whitewash her ethnicity. Abba has been and will always be her own worst enemy. She is absolutely not a feminist in any faction. As for her Honest Company, they have been riddled with quality issues since she first came out of the gate. Abba just happened to marry Cash and kept her schtick active as well as time deaf and ill equipped to speak as a proud Latina, because she isn’t one in her heart.
Marvel had a chance to really promote Ms. Marvel yet barely did anything for it. (It’s a really fun show, check it out.)
total with you on this. Additional to that i think when there is a real talent ex Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Ana de Armas you can overcome race and be successful
One does not need to overcome one’s race, one often must deal with racism; and since racism is systemic it is not “overcome” by individuals.
Two of the three women you mentioned are white Latinas Betty. Penelope Cruz and Ana de Armas are both Spanish AKA European AKA white (spicy white but white) and Salma Hayek is Spanish and Lebanese. Race and ethnicity stays beating people’s a$$es
@Tanesha86 OMG I literally just said this while watching a video about the Spaniards taking over Mexico! I said that they were just “Spicy White People”! LOL!
@Betty Overcame race?! Aren’t those two actresses white?!
I know Spanish people are…
I love Ms Marvel. It is so much fun. I loved the whole family environment and the cultural immersion. I can’t wait to see what happens with Kamala and her parents next – the father is a hoot and Zenobia Shroff’s Muneeba is a brilliant portrayal of every middle aged woman dealing with a headstrong teenage daughter and difficult older mother everywhere. The whole cast is excellent and the background story of the Partition, Kamala learning what she came from, grounded it in sadness and reality and love .
I had the same experience with the show that you did. I loved how they showed the mom as nuanced and trying to figure out her way in two worlds – teenaged American daughter and stubborn Pakistani mother.
I saw quite some promotion for Ms Marvel, even outside on the street, which I didn’t see for all their shows.
In the last decade, Marvel has also started way more comic book titles with diverse casts and protagonists.
I’ve been a comic book reader for years and saw a clear change in that regard. This to the point that it made certain comic book fans very mad about the “wokeness”.
Unfortunately, lots of these titles had poor sales, despite being very good. If we want more diversity, we should support it more.
Ms. Marvel is also an amazing comic book, with a lot of critical praise.
Please pick up a copy if you can and haven’t yet.
Really? I saw it everywhere. The Disney and marvel reddits, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, commercials.
Jessica was never a strong actress I think some people in Hollywood are really luck in their “fame” good for her business ventures she has more than enough to fall on.
I honestly have no idea how *The Honest Company* could get so big.
There have been so many things wrong with it, products that were not only not sustainably sourced, but also had actual harmful ingredients instead of the advertised organic ones.
And Jessica Alba was a huge proponent of all kinds of esoteric quackery at one time, that’s why I stopped following news about her after that.
came here to say the same. the honest company has been dishonest more than once so how did it manage to keep going.
I agree – not a fan, especially since they tried to bully Bunmi Laditan (author of the Honest Toddler blog) to give up her trademark application for “The Honest Toddler”.
Their whole company name is such a lie – the so-called “Honest Company” has been sued so many times for deceiving consumers and shareholders!
She’s not wrong..but I also agree with other commenters..she is speaking from a place of privilege many don’t have.
I would also like to see more representation of differing abilities..well, everywhere. This is still a portion of society that the general masses seem to be fine with “hiding away”. Only murders in the building handles this wonderfully with Ali Stroker as a recurring character without making it a thing as well as entire episodes in silence/sign language which was so moving. How difficult would it be for a friend of a super hero to be in a wheelchair or have hearing aids? Not very. Do better all around. But actual actors with differing abilities..not Brad Pitt or whoever pretending to be that.
Hawkeye actually had this! One of the antagonists was deaf and is deaf in real life. She’s getting her own Disney+ show, Echo. An Eternals character was also deaf. But I absolutely agree — I have a disability and never see myself anywhere. I can’t imagine what a huge impact it would have on children with disabilities to see better representation on screen, because it would certainly mean a lot to me as an adult.
One of the worst parts of this pandemic has been seeing how readily society is to dispose of the disabled community, honestly. So much rhetoric around “yeah, well it *only* kills immunocompromised or old people, or people with underlying conditions” as though that’s acceptable.
Did you know that the actress playing Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) is not only deaf, but also has a prosthetic leg? It obviously wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the show, but I saw it discussed by her elsewhere.
I did! And it was her FIRST acting job. She was amazing and now has her own show filming. They did show/mention it on the show though.
gosh, I wish americans would retire the word “caucasian”. i’m not saying it’s a microaggression or whatever obviously, but it just sounds so silly. the people of caucasus are a diverse group of ethnicities, a lot of them wouldn’t even pass for what y’all call “caucasian”. just say “white people”
+1
I was surprised she said “Caucasian.” I haven’t heard anyone (especially someone under 50) say that in a long time.
She’s my age and we grew up with Caucasian as an option on pretty much every form that asked you to fill out your race. That and African American. You were being rude and inconsiderate if you said white or black as a description of race.
@Kirsten she’s also my age. Yes, we grew up with that, but most people have not said that word in a long time. It fell out of favor quite some time ago.
THIS!
The term Caucasian is based on a geographical name of the Caucus Mountains. A good portion of the Caucus Mountains are on the Asian continental plate. Most of Turkey is geographically on the Asian continent. So are Armenia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iran. Politically, some of these countries may be European, but I’m speaking strictly geographically. The people from that area can also have a very racially ambiguous look as well as ancestry.
Same. I don’t even remember the last time I’ve seen or used that word. I always just say white.
I work in textbook publishing and our style guides explicitly say not to use Caucasian because the term was invented as a way to classify white people as a race to be compared favorably to other races. Nobody has used Caucasian since the 90s. We use white or White, depending on the capitalization norm in the field of the textbook.
While I want to say Jessica Alba is correct in her comments regarding Marvel’s diversity, I can’t take her seriously considering what she’s been accused of in recent years. This just feels like a rebranding for her.
The reason it took Marvel so long to diversify was due to the man who was in charge (above Kevin Feige) who didn’t want any project led by a Black/POC or a woman. Feige nearly quit altogether if Disney didn’t act and separate Marvel Studios from Marvel TV. Hence now why he’s trying so hard to now show the diversity we should have seen years ago.
Yeah. I’m pleased to see anyone succeed in business…but she is a notorious mean girl. So her being a feminist doesn’t include being decent to other women (which I’ve heard from friends who’ve interacted with her time and again).
Spanish people are from Spain. I get a bit annoyed when people refer to anyone who speaks Spanishs as “Spanish” people. Salma Hayek is Mexican and Lebanese. Ana De Armas is Cuban. Especially since a lot of actual people from Spain for years have made it clear that they don’t like to be lumped in with what they perceive as the more “impure” Latinos (ie anyone from a Latin American country, including Puerto Rico, DR and Cuba) who, generally speaking, are generations upon generations of a culture/ethnicity mixed with White, Black and Indigenous to varying degrees.
While someone from Cuba may have Spanish ancestry, it doesn’t necessarily make them White. Many Central Americans I know have loads of Indigenous AND African ancestry. Adriana Lima, who is Brazilian and presents as white, has stated she has both African and Indigenous ancestry as well as European. You can definitely see JLo’s Taina ancestry in her. (Taino’s are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean). I know. It’s complicated.
Both Sides of Ana’s family, mom and dad, can be recently and directly traced to Spain. There’s no hidden ancestry that makes her not white.
@Marisol
I never said SHE specifically wasn’t. She was born in Cuba. Which makes her Cuban regardless. She’s not “Spanish” by nationality, and not every light skinned person from Cuba has ancestry from just Spain alone. Which was my initial point.
Not Jessica ‘Don’t Call Me Latina’ Alba?! I’m happy she is so successful and was able to pivot from acting into something she seems much more skilled at. This talk about diversity and critiquing Marvel’s casting is interesting considering how she distanced herself and almost seemed ashamed of being identified as Mexican or a Latina when she was an actress.
THIS. I liked her on Dark Angel but she was never a great actress and frankly I thought the pivot to business was the smart route.
She’s maybe not watched much of the recent Marvel stuff? Everything that’s come out in the last four years or so has been pretty diverse.
Im side-eyeing all of this. Alba reminds me a lot of Zoe Saldana. They both were perfectly happy to disavow their heritage when it suited their careers. Now that the tide has turned both want to suddenly act like they are diversity advocates. And now she wants to talk like she was some kind of pioneer when back in the day she was giving interviews talking about how she wasn’t THAT Latino. Sure Jan.
Zoe Saldana has never said she wasn’t Black or Latina.
If anything a lot of people don’t like it when she claims being Latina.
Also Zoe is unable to pass for anything else but a Black or Mixed woman. She’s no way comparable to Jessica Alba.
Exactly. Zoe was getting heat from some Black Americans for saying she is Puerto Rican and Dominican, like if saying that somehow negated the fact she was racially black/mixed. Many Latino’s in NYC lead with their/their parents nationality. It is what it is. Early in her career (about 2004), she did an interview with a Dominican magazine where she unapologetically told the interviewer that she wasn’t “triguena” (a word in PR/DR that implies your just tan, and not Black) when he tried to correct her for saying she was racially a Black woman. She’s not my favorite actress but I felt bad for her cuz she was getting ish from all sides. But it’s not like she was ever trying to disassociate from her being who she is, unlike Alba who at one point seemed like she really wanted to distance herself from her Mexican side.
Jessica got to do those Fantastic Four films in part because of a successful smaller budget, big return film series, based on a Marvel property, about a Black vampire hunter kicking ass and taking names. A Mexican guy named Guillermo even directed the second film in the series, although I don’t know if he ever did anything after that ….
(Yes, the X-Men films helped greenlight a lot of comic book movies but Blade was very influential and pretty profitable and Never. Gets. Any. Credit)
I don’t get it: she’s complaining about Marvel Studios when they’re the most diverse comic franchise at the moment compared to everyone else; but is holding up Fox’s Fantastic Four movie where she played a white woman – complete with blue contacts and a blonde wig as the counterpoint. How was that diverse beyond the one Black director those films had?
The current diversity across Marvel Studios is broadening anyway. They’re adding indigenous latino rep with Namor and the Tlālocans; they just added Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez; Gael Garcia Bernal will be Wolf By Night; Oscar Isaac is playing Moon Knight; May Calamawy and Mohamed Diab repping for Egypt in the same; Destin Daniel Crettin, and entire cast of Shang-Chi; Iman Vellani and the entire cast of Ms Marvel (which was awesome, btw); the cast of Eternals; there’s Monica Rambeau, Sam Wilson, James Rhodes, Valkyrie, Riri Williams, Luke Cage; with Rosario Dawson likely coming back. Jonathan Majors as Kang/He Who Remains. Other supporting characters like Wong, Ravonna Renslayer, Hunter B-15, the High Evolutionary, and so on. A lot of those are kead heroes heading their own titles.
What’s the other side got? DC has Aquaman yet they’ve written out every character played by a PoC that Zack Snyder (like him or not) put in. Bye Cyborg, bye Atom, bye Martian Manhunter, who knows if Iris will last more than one movie with all that’s going on with The Flash. And DC did not want John Stewart as Green Lantern just Hal Jordan.
Sony has Zendaya, Jacob Batalon and some of the other Spider-Man cast but that’s the MCU/Marvel Studios too, and so part of the aforementioned. Outside of the MCU all they have is the cast of Into/Across The Spider-Verse, everything else is white af with one supporting PoC.
Every other studio is white with one PoC support if any. I’d say with maybe The Walking Dead being an exception but I haven’t watched that in a while and can’t verify. How many PoC have meaningful parts in The Boys?
I don’t think Jessica has watched any Marvel Studios lately. And they probably haven’t invited her in for any multiverse work either.
Yes, she is due for a review. I recently saw her role in a not-that-old movie and man, she really had some crappy lines. Her beauty and ethnicity automatically delegated her to these roles, unfortunately. Glad she is a success story and that she continues to inspire.
$1.4B valuation? At IPO in May 2021 at $16/shr. But by the 2/6/22 date of this CNBC article shares were trading at $6 giving $550M valuation (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/06/jessica-alba-on-building-honest-company-defying-expectations-therapy.html).
Current ~$3.785/shr means $1.4B valuation = “has been.” Clueless about Ms Alba’s acting abilities, but doesn’t sound like I’ve missed much. Re: HNST core biz (“digitally-native brand focused on leading the clean lifestyle movement, creating a community for conscious consumers and seeking to disrupt multiple consumer product categories”) LOL. Plenty alternatives for non-toxic household cleaners that don’t require rebranding. Etc. Etc.
This is def rebranding 100%. Both on set and at The Honest Company there are multiple staff accounts on how awful she is both as an employee and as a boss. The fact she talks about her drive and ambition and zero mention of staff support (both at The Honest Company and in her personal life) further fuels those accounts of her being awful.
Jessica and Gwyneth Paltrow got to do their “clean” lifestyle company based on their looks and image as a mother/wife. When Goop first came out, one of the newsletters was telling how she acquired all this “knowledge” and lives a “super awesome privileged life” (at the time she was married to Chris Martin with two young kids). Jessica also came out with a lifestyle book emphasis on family.
The elephant in the room is that Jessica never mentions her looks even though it was what helped her get in the door (same with Natalie Portman). The Halo Effect is real when it comes to celebs and for now Jessica isn’t “cancelled” but who knows how long that will last and it won’t be b/c of the “woke mob” its b/c she’s an awful boss who most likely emulated the horrible bosses she had in the industry rather than making the effort to be better.
I wouldn’t say still, I’d say historically. Feige has made huge inroads since Perlmutter left in expanding the MCU in terms of race, gender and even religion though the latter doesn’t get focused on much. None of the movies or tv shows these past two years have been the white sausage fests of the early days. They don’t even have many new white guys they’re introducing. Kit Harrington’s Dane and Adam warlock are exceptions. Then whatever they do with fantastic four and X-men.They have Strange, Thor (though who knows if he’s done), ant man (finishing his trilogy), Spidey (future unknown), Bucky (future unknown), Hawkeye is likely finished as is Bruce after she hulk. Star lord is doing his last movie. They’ve brought on Jonathan majors who will be the villain face of the next two phases as Kang. Teyonah Parrish will likely succeed Brie Larson. Letitia Wrights future is uncertain by her own doing but we may see more Winston Duke. Wakanda is getting its own series. Sam Jackson and Don Cheadle are stepping into lead roles. Mackie is doing CA4. There should be an Eternals 2 based on rumor because it did well on streaming.
So, when you throw stones, you gotta expect people to look at who’s throwing them. The Honest Company leadership, other than Alba & Vlahos: all white.
https://investors.honest.com/corporate-governance/honest-leaders
Marvel officially has more diversity in lead roles than Alba’s company:
I don’t care what race she is. She cannot act! Period!!!
I know she’s ambiguous looking but I tend to think of her as Caucasian because her origins were revealed to be if primarily European Spanish origin in the George Lopez Show.
Whenever I see Honey on tv I feel her casting in that movie doesn’t make much sense.
The 90s? Her Fantastic Four movies were released in 2005 and 2007.