Jessica Biel said she 'really understood' her axe-murderer character in 'Candy': 'I'm working on the same stuff that she's working on'

• Jessica Biel opened up about her role as accused ax-murderer Candy Montgomery in Hulu's "Candy."
• The actress told Vanity Fair she "really loved" the character, who's inspired by a real woman.

Jessica Biel opened up about her role as Candy Montgomery in the true-crime miniseries "Candy," saying that she "empathized with" the character.

The real Candy Montgomery was a Texas woman who was accused of violently killing her friend Betty Gore in 1980. She was later acquitted by a jury.

In an interview with Vanity Fair's David Canfield published Friday, Biel was asked what it was like to play a version of events that weren't necessarily true.

"You just play it as truth. At least that's my perspective: I really loved her and still do on many levels. I empathize with this character. I have parallel issues that I struggle with, that she was struggling with," she said. "And on a really basic level, I just had to believe her and I did most days."

The "A Kind of Murder" actress told the outlet she had "no problem" tapping into her anger while filming the Hulu limited series.

"Well, I'm mad. So I had no problem. I'm sort of kidding and also not kidding, right? I feel like women have been marginalized and told to be a certain way, and told that their bodies have to do a certain thing at a certain time, et cetera. Forever. I feel angry about a lot of things that happened to me in my life that I'm still trying to understand how to communicate."

Biel said that she's also working on communicating better with her partner and setting clear boundaries.

"I don't want to be perfect all the time. I feel that all the time in a much smaller way," she continued. "I have more support to work through those feelings than Candy did at that time. She didn't have those systems. She didn't have the tools. She didn't know."

Biel, who also served as an executive producer on the show, recently told Entertainment Weekly that her husband Justin Timberlake's unexpected cameo on the show was "an accident" and occurred after Timberlake expressed interest while reading the script together.