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Jessica Biel may play a fearless little green alien in her first animated film PLANET 51 but in real life, the former 7th Heaven star admits she is afraid of the unknown…but not of the close encounter kind.

At a recent press conference for PLANET 51, appropriately held at the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles with co-stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (The Tooth Fairy) and Justin Long (Drag Me To Hell, Old Dogs), Jessica Biel expressed her belief that other life forms may exist on distant planets and like her Neera character in PLANET 51, she would embrace it instead of fearing it.   

  VIDEO: Watch Planet 51 movie trailer

In her first voice over role as an animated character, Jessica Biel is Neera, a resident of PLANET 51 who must step up when her planet is underseige... by her own people.  When Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) lands on Planet

51, the little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence much like 1950’s America are sent into panic mode and paranoia state.  Neera, a confident 16 year-old teen is one of the few along with Justin Long’s character Lem who do not believe the hype about mind snatchers and alien invaders, and set out to save Captain Chuck from Planet 51’s military government. 

The film’s message is ultimately about dealing with fear of the unknown, which Jessica can relate to.  Her fear is not the extraterrestrial encounter but of the Hollywood kind.  Finding her next role is often an area of uncertainty that she finds unnerving. 

“When are you gonna work?  I don’t know. I feel like that’s always kind of been the unknown.  I try not to think about it too much but it’s always a little bit there.  When?  And can you pay your bills.  Is it gonna be creatively interesting?  That’s always there for me.”

While the world of Hollywood is a constant unknown—one day you’re hot and one day you’re not -- Jessica Biel has had a successful movie career since her days as a TV teen star on the family drama 7^th Heaven playing a preacher’s wholesome daughter.  However, she was far from being a wholesome teenager in real life, according to Jessica.

“When I was 16, I was pushing it on every angle ---with my parents—the world.  I thought I had it going on.”

Jessica did not name any specifics at the press conference but she might be referring to her rebelliousness in 2000 during the fourth season of 7^th Heaven when she no longer wanted to play the good ol’ girl.  After losing the role in American Beauty to Thora Birch, Biel broke with her television image and posed semi-nude for Gear Magazine while under 18 years of age.  The controversy didn’t get her out of her contract but her reduced role on 7th Heaven led to more time for a movie career.

While her risky moves paid off for the talented actress, she expressed some regret about her negative attitude as a teenager when comparing herself to her jolly green alien Neera. 

“I had more of a bad attitude.  She’s much more into changing for the world, into peace, and into thinking for herself.  She’s way more of a positive charitable person than I was at 16.”

Her rebelliousness might be in her past but this 27 year-old beauty continuous to take risks in her career with roles in independent films and mainstream projects.  She is currently shooting the A-TEAM, the 80's television show being adapted to the big screen starring Liam Neeson (Batman Begins), Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, All About Steve), Patrick Wilson (Watchmen), and Sharlto Copley (District 9).  

With three films set for release in 2010 (Valentine’s Day, The A-Team, and The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea), her fear of the Hollywood unknown may be unfounded but it’s good to know even the A-Listers are not entirely alien to us regular folk. 

PLANET 51 is in theaters Friday, November 20^th.