What Happened Between Jensen Ackles And Jessica Alba?

September 2024 · 5 minute read

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For the last few years, fans have been deprived of Jessica Alba’s presence on their screens. The last time the actress performed on TV or in a film was in the final episode of Spectrum’s action comedy crime series L.A.’s Finest in September 2020.

She did feature alongside Zac Efron in a short film titled Dubai Presents: A Five-Star Mission last year. For all intents and purposes, though, Alba walked away from acting as a career a while ago.

She explained the reasoning behind this in an interview last year, where she pointed to the tough balancing act of being a successful businesswoman, a mother to her three children, and a professional actor all at the same time.

The decision to quit acting was not a permanent one, however, and she is due to return to the big screen in an upcoming action thriller movie going by the title Trigger Warning.

Alba will be hoping the second phase of her career can surpass the heights of her first. One of her biggest roles before was in the sci-fi drama series Dark Angel, which aired on Fox between 2000 and 2002.

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The role wasn’t all smooth sailing, though, as she reportedly had a rough time working with co-star Jensen Ackles on the set of the show.

Jessica Alba Starred As Max Guevara In ‘Dark Angel’

Dark Angel was created by legendary director James Cameron, who had started to develop various concepts for television on the back of his success with Titanic in 1997. Fox commissioned the project, and invested $10 million into a two-hour pilot.

A plot summary for the show on IMDb reads: ‘In a future of political, economic and moral collapse, a genetically enhanced superhuman prototype named Max escapes from military confines and dwells amidst the decadent underground street life of Seattle to avoid government agents who want to bring her back into the fold.’

More than one thousand actresses auditioned for the lead role of Max Guevara. Cameron reviewed the tapes himself, and was not originally impressed with Jessica Alba’s. On closer inspection, however, he knew she was the one.

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“She had her head down, she was reading out of the script. She didn't present herself all that well,” he said in an old interview. “But there was something about the way she read the script that copped an attitude that I liked.”

Jensen Ackles made his big breakthrough as an actor with a main role in NBC’s classic daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. For 115 episodes between 1997 and 2000, he portrayed the character Eric Brady.

After he left Days of Our Lives, Ackles started pursuing new opportunities on television. He featured in a CBS biographical film called Blonde, which starred Australian actress Poppy Montgomery as Marylin Monroe.

He also auditioned for the lead role Clark Kent / Superman in The WB’s Smallville, a part that he lost out to Tom Welling. Ackles would later on appear on the show in a different role a few years later.

It wasn’t too long after his time on Days of Our Lives that the Texas-born star was cast in Dark Angel. He first appeared in the 18th episode of Season 1 (Pollo Loco), as the character known as Ben / X5-493.

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Ackles’ spell on Dark Angel spanned the course of 22 episodes, until it was canceled after only two seasons.

Why Did Jensen Ackles And Jessica Alba Not Get Along On The Set Of ‘Dark Angel’?

Jensen Ackles revisited the challenges that he faced on the set of Dark Angel earlier this year, when he featured in an episode of Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast, Inside You with Michael Rosenbaum.

In the interview, he revealed that as soon as he arrived to work on the show, Jessica Alba was immediately on his case. “I was the new kid on the block, and I was picked on by the lead. She had it out for me,” the actor said.

He did offer a disclaimer that, nonetheless, there was no bad blood between them. “It wasn’t that she didn’t like me,” Ackles continued. “She just was like, ‘Oh, here’s the pretty boy that network brought in for some more window dressing because that’s what we all need.’”

In the end, Ackles figured that the only way to respond was to “fight fire with fire” which helped them to develop a sense of strong respect for each other. “It was that kind of a relationship,” he added. “If she walked in we’d be all hugs. But she didn’t make it easy on me on set.”

NEXT: Jessica Alba's 10 Biggest Movies & TV Roles

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