Jessica Alba Shares the ‘Biggest Thing’ She Wants Her Kids to Know If They Go Into Show Business (Exclusive)

The actress and business mogul is starring in the new Netflix action movie 'Trigger Warning'

Jessica Alba knows exactly how she would respond if any of her three kids wanted to follow in her footsteps into show business.

"The thing is, I think if you tell your kid anything, they're going to do the opposite, right?" she says of Honor, 16, Haven, 12, and Hayes, 6, who she shares with her husband of 16 years, entrepreneur Cash Warren, 45. "So I try not to have too strong opinions one way or another."

The "biggest thing" for Alba, who stepped down as chief creative officer of the Honest Company in April, would be for her kids to have a leadership role in the industry.

"If they do want to be a performer, then being able to be a producer and a writer, or a director," she says. "I think having that leadership role is really important to the art and be part of the art in a way where they feel like they can have more autonomy and there's more dignity."

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Now starring in the new Netflix action movie, Trigger Warning, as a knife-wielding Special Forces commando with impressive fighting skills that hark back to her breakthrough role on the TV series Dark Angel, Alba admits her own experience as a young actress has affected her perspective.

"You're just so happy to be there and it's like, 'Did the check clear?' " she recalls. "And there's a desperation like, 'Please God, I need this job.'"

As a result, "It just puts you on your back foot. You're not always taking the roles that are the best," adds the actress, who also serves as executive producer on the movie.

"You're just taking roles to survive, which teaches grit and perseverance, but I do wish I would've had the skill set and the wherewithal to write and to know about writing and directing and producing earlier in my career."

Trigger Warning premieres on Netflix on June 21.

For more on Jessica Alba, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, June 14.

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