Jessica Biel on backing ‘Cruel Summer’

New Delhi: Hollywood star Jessica Biel says she and her producer partner Michelle Purple want to give a platform to women of all ages and their upcoming teen psychological thriller series “Cruel Summer” is one such attempt.

The duo had also backed the critically-acclaimed series “The Sinner”, in which Biel also stars, and drama feature “The Book of Love” via their production company Iron Ocean Productions.
“Cruel Summer” takes place over three summers in the ’90s when a beautiful and popular teen, Kate, goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated girl Jeanette transforms from a sweet and awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town, eventually becoming the most despised person in America.

“Walking through the experiences of these two young women at the forefront of this show was something we really love to do for our company. (We) always give women a big voice and a moment to tell their story. Not caring about what kind of age we are talking about, young or mature women,” Biel said.

What attracted her to the story of the 10-episode show was playing with the “idea of perspective”, added the 39-year-old actor-producer.

“The idea of who’s telling the truth? The truth very much sort of lives in this other realm of your truth, my truth and something else that’s also true. That seemed very mealy to us.” Biel, who serves as an executive producer on “Cruel Summer” along with Purple, said the non-linear narrative of the series in which each episode focuses on the same day over the course of three years: 1993, 1994 and 1995, was very unique.

Biel said she hopes the trend of female actors turning producers continues as it is important for an artiste to have control over their careers.

“Cruel Summer” is scheduled to start streaming on Amazon Prime Video in India from August 6.