Jessica Biel On Motherhood: "You Think You're Selfless, But You're Not"

As far as A-listers go — and she's definitely an A-lister — Jessica Biel is rarely in the tabloids, probably because she seemingly leads a very charmed life. (Charmed lives are wonderful; they don't necessarily make national news.) But she's been here the whole time, working quietly on indie films and raising her son Silas with husband Justin Timberlake. In an interview in the August issue of Marie Claire, the relatively elusive Biel opened up about motherhood and its effect on her life.

"You think you're a selfless person, and then you realize you're not," she said. Biel corroborated what so many have said before: Parenthood really does change you. "These little people come around, and they require so much, and your schedule is really not your own, nor is it important anymore, and it's very clear that it's your life now revolving around this dude."

She added, "I'm not that person who feels like, Oh, my whole life changes for my kid, but it does." Silas turned 2 in April of this year.

Indeed, Biel is forthright on social media about the challenges of being a working mother. In June, the 35-year-old shared a photo of herself napping in her car on Twitter, writing, "SPOTTED! In her natural state, notice the slack jaw, deep sleep and palpable fatigue of this creature. Yes, it is a working mom."

The working part may be exhausting, but we couldn't be more thankful that Biel is returning to the silver screen. Her new role diverges from her past work — it's dark, and her character is far from innocent. In The Sinner, Biel plays Cora Tannetti, a young mother who, seemingly for no reason, commits a criminal act of violence. For the role, Biel had to dig into her not-so-sweet side.

"It's like a drug, like an adrenaline rush," she said of the process. "There's a real catharsis…you're exhausted, you are free; you feel a lot of different things. For me, it's like a rebirth. Like I'm a phoenix rising up out of the ashes."

Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about or passing on kids, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.