Rise to Fame
The wholesome girl-next-door on 7th Heaven was a trap. She started at 14 as Mary Camden, the eldest daughter in a TV minister's family, and spent years trying to get out of it. At 17, she posed for Gear magazine hoping the producers would cut her loose. They sued the magazine instead and kept her on. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) eventually did what the magazine shoot couldn't, opening at number one and clearing $80 million domestically. Horror was her exit ramp from family television.
In the Spotlight
Getting cast wasn't enough, so she started greenlighting her own projects. Iron Ocean Productions, her company with partner Michelle Purple, developed The Sinner in 2017, where she starred and exec produced, earning Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Candy (2022) had Hulu's best debut since The Handmaid's Tale season 4. Her public profile in 2024 got consumed by Justin Timberlake's DWI arrest, which she navigated by saying little. Whether that's loyalty or strategy depends on who you ask.
Side Notes
In 2019, she flew to Sacramento to lobby against a California vaccine bill alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then denied being anti-vaccine. The bill passed 9-2 anyway. Her restaurant Au Fudge opened in 2016 with a California-French menu and an au pair-staffed playroom, won an environmental green-seal award, and closed two years later. She told Jimmy Kimmel it wasn't making money. The vaccine lobby trip and the restaurant failure arrived within a year of each other, which says something about her instincts outside acting.