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Jessica Alba compares Hollywood to parenting: 'They'll never love you as much as you love them'

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 09: Jessica Alba attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 09, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Jessica Alba talks to Kate Hudson about her Hollywood career. (Photo by David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Jessica Alba knows a career in Hollywood isn’t a fast track to fulfillment.

The Honest Company founder, who rose to fame on the 2000 TV series Dark Angel before going on to star in films like Honey and Sin City, appeared on Kate Hudson and brother Oliver Hudson’s Sibling Revelry podcast to discuss why she doesn’t think people should rely on their careers alone to bring them satisfaction.

“People’s identity is certainly attached to their profession in a lot of ways. In our society, in our culture in the United States, we live to work,” the mom of three, who is married to producer Cash Warren, noted. “We try to get so much out of work — life fulfillment and mental and personal and heart fulfillment — that we put too much on it. It’s tied too much to our identity.”

She continued, “In entertainment, it’s really awful because it’s always like a girlfriend or a boyfriend who has one foot out the door, and is never really going to be that into you. You can never close the deal, actually. I don’t know why we do it. It can make you feel really wild. No matter how much you bring to the table, no matter how good you are, no matter how accomplished you are, it’s still constantly telling you that you’ll never be good enough in somebody’s eyes.”

Alba joked that in some ways, being a Hollywood star is like being a parent.

“Children, they’ll never love you as much as you love them,” she said with a laugh. “They’ll never be as into you. You get moments where they’ll pretend you matter to them a lot, usually when they’re younger. But once their hormones start and they start getting their swag and start thinking on their own, they’ll never love you like you love them. It’s a one-sided relationship. It’s f***ing terrible.”

Alba, who most recently starred on the Spectrum series L.A.’s Finest with Gabrielle Union, spoke to Romper last year about why she chose to take a step back from acting after becoming a mom.

"My motivation was not like, ‘Am I ever going to get hired again?’ Frankly, I was at the top of my career," she said. "I couldn't go back to what I was doing before and be authentic. I just couldn't. I didn't care about it the same way."

She added, "I felt like if I was going to have this platform, then what can I do with it that could be meaningful and make a difference? That just felt so real when I became a mom for the first time."

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