Jada Pinkett Smith- A Woman’s Worth

“Give me one second,” Jada Pinkett Smith calmly requested, as she pecked away on her BlackBerry. “Oh this is really good news. One of my actors got the part.”

So the work never stops for you, I see?

“Never,” she responded. “You’ll never get where you’re trying to go unless you put in the work. You know what I’m saying? And if you decide to put it off in this industry, you’ll get left behind. Hey, let me return this call real quick, so I can let them know that I’m with you and that I’ll call them back when we’re finished. Are you OK? You need anything? This doesn’t bother you does it?”

No, not at all.

“OK, cool.”

Jada Pinkett Smith has always been one of the sexiest women in show business (no disrespect Will). Ever since she first exploded onto the scene in 1991 as independent, sassy frosh Lena James on TV’s “A Different World,” Pinkett Smith has not lacked male admirers. But the actress was determined not to be defined by her looks, nor by her marriage to the biggest superstar on the planet. No, the sweat of her own brow would define her legacy.

When Pinkett Smith begins to detail how her work is an exercise in spirituality, it’s akin to listening in on a very intimate, private conversation. “My calling from God is that I’m here to represent for black women in a way that when a black woman looks at me, I want her to understand that she can have it all,” she says. “And when a black woman looks at me, I want her to understand that nobody has the right to stick her inside of a box and tell her how to limit herself. But also when a black man looks at me, I want him to understand the expansion, the power and the potential of the women that are by (his) side. And that the more we offer each other support, and the more that we offer each other love, then there’s no stopping us. The only way that we can be stopped is through not having that unity between us, and allowing other parties to come in and divide us. That’s our history. We constantly had interference in our relationships, because people understood the power of our unity. So people worked hard to keep the black man and black woman broken and separated. But now it’s time for us to work hard and not allow that to be the case anymore.”

But wait, while I agree with you, I can’t help but wonder when you figured this all out. Was it a process that you ultimately uncovered as you grew within your marriage? Or was this something that you always knew, and were just waiting for the right man to come along so you could exercise your belief in the power of unity?

“This kind of understanding evolved for me,” she replies, leaning forward. “I honestly never saw myself married, because it was so hard. I didn’t know how I was going to work it out with me and anybody. I knew that I was going to have a companion. But a husband? No, I wasn’t trying to do that. I might have shared a child with somebody, but I wasn’t trying to give myself to anybody.”

So if it was something that you had to grow into, when did it change? Did it just happen over time without you really noticing, or did something profound happen that caused you to shift your thinking?

Pinkett Smith paused for a moment … began to speak, but then paused once more to gather her thoughts. It became increasingly apparent that Pinkett Smith had been longing for the opportunity to break free from the superficial interview questions that some media outlets have spoon-fed her over the years. It was obvious she didn’t want to waste this opportunity to share her core beliefs.

“I just had to grow into knowing how to surrender … to God, to my man, to myself,” she states, while staring off, apparently conjuring up the memories of her evolution. “And you know what; it’s been a long, hard journey. But I’m here. And honestly, the journey continues. I don’t have all the answers. All I can tell you is that every day, I am constantly working on expanding myself, learning and being better a better person. When I wake up every morning, I want to be more — for Will, for my kids, and for myself. And now that I’m thinking about it, I want to be more for all women, and for all people. That’s my calling. And the minute that I was able to just fall into step, things began to work out for me. I could hear a higher power whispering in my ear saying ‘You have got to surrender to me and follow, because if you don’t, it’s just going to be pain. I’m going to keep delivering the pain, as long as you ignore me.’ So I wised up, and finally learned how to surrender. That was the biggest obstacle for me.”

“If you can’t tell by now, my spiritual walk means everything to me,” she stated while pounding her fist in her hand to accentuate her point. “And I know what works for me. It may not work for everyone, but it works for me. And while some people will only preach [about] ‘Jesus [and] God,’ [as the only path] I’m like ‘OK; that’s your walk and I get it.’ But I just know what works for me. Yeah, God does have us, but at the same time we’ve gotta do some work, too.”

But with your position, and your visibility, you’ve never been tempted to push your beliefs on someone else? I’m sure the opportunity has presented itself on more than one occasion to impart your way of thinking to someone else.

“I don’t think that works,” she asserts. “I think that one of the things that we have to learn when it comes to being together as a people, is that you have to grant people the space to be who they are. It’s one of the things that I love about Islam, because Islam talks about the path to righteousness. And whether you are a Jew, a Christian, or whatever, as long as you are on the path of righteousness, then you are OK. And that passage in the Koran, gave me such an affinity for that religion. I study all religions, because I just have a love for religion, but when I read that, I said to myself ‘now that’s what I know God to be.’ As long as you are on the path of righteousness, then you are fine. And whatever path you chose to get there, then that’s on you. But just do right. We all just need to do right.”

As her publicist walked in to bring our time to a close, I stood, and offered my hand along with sincere thanks for our time together. “I appreciate it; you gave me an entirely new perception of you.”

“Aww, thank you,” she replied as she took my hand. “I’m just glad you took the time to talk to me about things that are real. When it’s all said and done, most of the things that people want to talk about don’t even matter in the grand scheme of things. We as a people have a lot of work to do, so I can only hope that having dialogue like this can help bring about change.”

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I have to admit that a small part of me was skeptical about going to review Pinkett Smith’s latest flick Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. But halfway through the screening, I found myself completely invested in the film, almost ready to kick myself for my initial pessimism about attending the advance viewing. (Yeah, it’s that good.)  As the animated film gets set to open nationwide on Nov. 7, Pinkett Smith was reserving her judgment on the final product until her ultimate critics get a chance to weigh in.