Black Biography:
Jada Pinkett Smith
actor; movie producer; publisher; television director; fashion designer; founder; singer
Personal Information
Born on September 18, 1971, in Baltimore, MD; daughter of Robsol Pinkett, Jr. (a contractor) and Adrienne Banfield (a nurse); married Will Smith (rapper and actor), December 31, 1997; children: Jaden Christopher Syre, Willow Camille Reign
Education: Attended Baltimore School for the Arts and North Carolina School for the Arts.
Memberships: Will and Jada Smith Foundation, co-founder, 1990s.
Career
Actress, 1991-; video director, 1991-; Maja, clothing designer and founder, 1994-; Overbrook Entertainment, co-founder and producer, 1990s-; Pretty Smart Books, founder and publisher, 2002-; singer, 2002-.
Life's Work
"Nothing's ever enough for me," Jada Pinkett Smith declared in GQ. "It's never enough. There's always somewhere new to go." Whether that "somewhere new" is an acting role or a venture like directing rap videos, producing television shows, running publishing companies, or singing, Pinkett Smith rarely shrinks from a challenge. By the age of 30, she had already won over film critics and fans with a series of diverse but equally scene-stealing performances in such films as Menace II Society, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Jason's Lyric, The Nutty Professor, Ali, and two Matrix movies, handling intimate drama, broad comedy, and action-horror heroism with aplomb. The Source praised her "ability to effortlessly inhabit the characters she portrayed." Even more impressive than her wide variety of acting roles is her life off of the silver screen. Pinkett Smith is married to world-renowned actor Will Smith, of Men in Black and Bad Boys fame, is a full-time mother to three children, and is a co-founder of the Will and Jada Smith Foundation, which hands out over $1 million per year to help out inner-city communities.
Pinkett Smith was born on September 18, 1971, in Baltimore, Maryland, to contractor Robsol Pinkett, Jr. and nurse Adrienne Banfield; her parents divorced around the time of her birth. Raised by her mother and grandmother, Marion Banfield, in the rough neighborhood known as Pimlico, she soon developed the confidence and openness to experimentation that would catapult her to fame. Her relationship with her mother was pivotal in this regard. "We were more like sisters in some ways than mother and daughter," Pinkett Smith averred in People. "We leaned on each other a lot."
Her grandmother, she recalled in People, "taught me that I can achieve whatever I want to achieve. Grandmama wanted her grandchildren to have every possible experience--ballet, tap dancing, piano lessons, gymnastics. She didn't want us to ever think we were deprived." Marion Banfield also told Pinkett Smith about sex; as she noted to GQ, Banfield "sat me down at the age of 9 and let me know that masturbation was a very natural thing. The body, nudity, was very special and beautiful."
Displayed Talent Early
By age 14 Pinkett Smith had demonstrated sufficient talent and drive to attend the Baltimore School for the Arts. During high school she experimented with wild hair colors, rode a motorcycle, and tried everything from dance to studying French. Yet it soon became clear that acting was her strongest suit, for, as she said to Entertainment Weekly: "There was nothing else I could do, except maybe go to law school and pass the bar, so the courtroom would be my stage."
Pinkett Smith graduated from Baltimore and went on to the North Carolina School of the Arts, but within a year had relocated to Los Angeles to pursue show business professionally. After meeting Keenen Ivory Wayans--creator and star of the hit television comedy series In Living Color--at a party, she pestered him for a job as choreographer on the show. She'd had no professional experience, she admitted, but she'd helped with some dance numbers in a high school play. "I used to beg, 'Keenen, put me on your show, put me on your show.'" she recalled to Entertainment Weekly. Wayans didn't give her the gig she wanted, but was impressed with her and provided her with some motivation. Wayans instead, Pickett Smith told Entertainment Weekly, "encouraged me to get off my lazy tail, get an agent, and do something."
From Sitcom To Big-Screen
In 1991 Pinkett Smith joined the cast of the hit TV situation comedy A Different World. In the role of Lena James, Entertainment Weekly observed, "sassiness became her signature." The character of James was perfect for Pinkett Smith for it had her playing a tough kid from the rough streets of Baltimore, a role that she was very familiar with from her own childhood. She told Interview magazine, "They said they needed someone with a little edge, so they based Lena on me." By the time the show left the air in 1993, Pinkett Smith had already committed to a dramatic role in the film Menace II Society by two struggling filmmakers, Allen and Albert Hughes. She attacked the role of an unwed mother in the low-budget film with gusto; which paid off when both she and the movie earned critical praise. It was crucial to Pinkett Smith, as she explained to GQ, to establish her dramatic credentials in Hollywood without coming off as a bombshell: "I didn't want to start in this business as a very sexual woman or a very attractive woman. I wanted to be noticed because of the talent."
Pinkett Smith took on a romantic role in The Inkwell, Matty Rich's nostalgic 1994 comedy-drama. Though the film fared poorly both at the box office and with critics--Entertainment Weekly deemed it "ungainly and amateurish"--it didn't prevent Pinkett Smith from earning more roles. She landed another romantic lead, the title role in Jason's Lyric. The film's love scenes were steamy enough to earn it an NC-17 rating, the equivalent of box-office poison; they were re-edited so that the movie received an R rating. Even the image of Pinkett Smith's naked thigh (wrapped around the body of her costar Allen Payne) in the promotion poster ruffled industry feathers and had to be airbrushed out. "People are so uptight about sex," she complained to GQ . "What are they tripping about? It's not even kinky sex." She added that she suspected "society has a problem with black intimacy."
Lyric director McHenry described Pinkett Smith to The Source magazine as "a really fabulous actress. She played Lyric as not just another stereotypical Black woman, but with sensitivity. She showed you that a woman can handle herself without drinking with the fellas, or cursing every other word." Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum, however, found the film's love affair "clichéd," little more than "a picture-perfect romance that inspires pretty, petite Pinkett to wear floaty dresses out of a perfume ad and quote the poetry of John Donne to handsome, muscled Payne." Yet, again, Pinkett Smith got noticed in the film community. Indeed, as The Source proclaimed, "1994 was the year Jada showed us what 'a nineties kinda girl' really looks like!"
Branched Out Into Different Roles
Pinkett Smith at last got her opportunity to work with Wayans. "He busted my ass," she declared to Entertainment Weekly . "I had to read twice, no three times, for him!" At last, however, she landed the role of Peaches in his action-comedy A Low Down Dirty Shame. "Peaches is raw," Pinkett Smith insisted of the character, sidekick to Shame, Wayans's private eye. "She's got real long nails and a major attitude. Givin' you straight ghetto. Ghetto vogue." Despite her diminutive stature, Pinkett Smith told People that she enjoyed "rolling down the stairs and having someone kick me around the set. The stunts were the best part of making the movie."
While the film suffered generally poor reviews, Pinkett Smith invariably shone. People cited raves from both coasts, with Stephen Holden of the New York Times declaring that she "walks away with the movie," and Los Angeles Times reviewer Kevin Thomas gushing that the actress "lights up the screen." Apart from Wayans's charm, wrote Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman, who gave the film a "C" grade, the film has "one other saving grace," namely Pinkett Smith, "a hyperkinetic comic sprite." Gleiberman added that "Pinkett parades her head-waggling bravado with a welcome dose of self-mockery." Entertainment Weekly ventured that after "all the buzz about her fierce performance in Shame, Pinkett won't stay a secret for long."
She again seized the limelight in Ernest Dickerson's Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight, an action-horror feature that spun off from a successful cable television series. She cut her hair short and dyed it platinum for the role, "a pure creative choice," as she told Essence. Battling the film's evil title character, she emerged as the first black female action hero on the big screen in nearly two decades. She told GQ that the genre suited her taste: "I'd love to work with [acclaimed action directors] Ridley Scott or John Woo. I'm sick and tired of seeing black women on the screen as victims." She does enjoy sharing an audience's appreciation of her on-screen strength, however. "I love sitting in the back [of the theater] with a big hat on so nobody can recognize me," she confessed to People, "and watching people having fun during one of my movies. They're going, 'Yeah, Jada--go girl!' Wow! It doesn't get any better than that."
Found Success Both on and Off Screen
In the early 1990s, shortly after she had left A Different World, Pinkett Smith tried out for a part on the up-and-coming television series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It was here that she first met actor Will Smith. While she did not get the part on the series as Smith's girlfriend (a role that went to super model Tyra Banks), she did gain a friendship with Smith that would grow as both of their careers progressed. They grew especially close in 1995 when Pinkett Smith broke up with long time boyfriend Grant Hill and Smith and his wife, Sheree Zampino, separated, counseling each other through the hard times. Yet the relationship was purely platonic at this point, for, as Pinkett Smith told Cosmopolitan, "At first, we weren't each other's cup of tea."
As Pinkett Smith and Smith spent more time together, they eventually realized that an attraction was growing, and at the urging of friends Duane and Tisha-Campbell Martin, they explored a romantic relationship. At the same time, Pinkett Smith was breaking into commercial Hollywood circles with movies such as The Nutty Professor, alongside comedian Eddie Murphy, Set It Off, an off the wall action drama that matched Pinkett Smith with Queen Latifah and Vivica A. Fox as a group of disgruntled bank robbers, and a small but well received roll in the teen horror flick Scream 2. She also secured a lead role in the romantic comedy Woo, where she played an outgoing, eccentric woman who was looking for love in all of the wrong places.
In 1997 Pinkett Smith and Smith announced their engagement and shortly after announced that Pinkett Smith was pregnant with their first child. The couple sped up their wedding plans and on New Years Eve of 1997, they were married in a private ceremony in Baltimore, Maryland, an event so top secret that guests were only given maps to the ceremony site hours before the actual wedding. Sixth months later, the Smiths welcomed their son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, into the world. While this was Pinkett Smith's first child, she and Will Smith had already been taking care of Smith's son, Willard Smith III (Trey for short), from his marriage to Zampino.
Scaled Back Career
After the birth of Jaden, Pinkett Smith decided to scale back her acting career so that she could spend more time with her new baby as well as her new husband. As she told Entertainment Weekly, "I'd rather not star in anything right now because I need to be flexible for my family. Will is the breadwinner, so what I'm trying to do is keep myself in the game enough.... Maybe one day I'll star in something again, but I've gotten comfortable with the idea that I'm not going to have the career that I once thought I was."
This did not mean that Pinkett Smith was not active during the late 1990s. With her husband she set up the Will and Jada Smith Foundation, which gives, according to Essence, "$1 million per year in scholarships to grassroots organizations that help mothers, children, and families." The couple have also started Overbrook Entertainment, a production company set up to assist African-American actors to secure principal roles in Hollywood films both in front of and behind the camera. Pinkett Smith told People Weekly, "In order to keep the Nia Longs and Halle Berrys and the Vivica A. Foxes working, you really need to have more black women behind the scenes."
In 2000 Pinkett Smith returned to the screen in Spike Lee's farce, Bamboozled, a movie which showed the plight of many black actors and screenwriters in Hollywood. She followed this up with the comedy Kingdom Come, alongside Whoopi Goldberg, LL Cool J, and Vivica A. Fox. In early 2001 she starred in Ali, her first movie with husband Will Smith. Ironically she played Sonji, the first wife of boxer Muhammad Ali, who was played by Smith. A few months later, Pinkett Smith gave birth to the couple's second child, Willow Camille Reign.
Jumped Back Into Action
Many people wondered if Pinkett Smith would take more time off after the birth of her second child, but she was already in the middle of intensive training for three projects for the Wachowski Brothers, the films The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions, and the video game Enter The Matrix. In both the films and the video game, Pinkett Smith plays Niobe, a human soldier of the city of Zion who is trying to stop an invasion of machines from killing the human race. The role challenged Pinkett Smith not only mentally but physically. She told Essence, "I was trained to fly on the wire. My character, Niobe, has no weapons but she is nice with her feet. Therefore I had to do hours of kicks, as well as kick strengthening exercises."
Other avenues of expression have opened up to Pinkett Smith as well since her return to Hollywood. She and Smith became executive producers of a show based on their own life called All of Us, which deals with the non-traditional family. Many people wondered if a comedy was the right type of show to present such a touchy subject but, as Pinkett Smith told Interview, "I felt like in such a serious situation as trying to make a blended family work and be, I thought it would just work better in a sitcom format." While critics have yet to pass judgement on whether Pinkett Smith is correct or not, both she and Smith feel the show will be successful because, "It's really something that I'm sure all of us have experienced in some form or fashion."
Pinkett Smith has also recently founded a publishing company called Pretty Smart Books, which she is hoping will print a good deal of stories that would have not otherwise gotten the chance to hit bookstore shelves. She also sang on husband Will Smith's album, Born to Reign. Pinkett Smith plans to release a yet untitled solo album, which will allow her to explore the world of music. As she told Essence, "I love to write songs. It all comes from my heart. I'm not going pop, don't want to spend a lot of money on the project. I'll probably be independent. I believe I have something to say, and there's no pressure."
With all she has going for her, it seems that Pinkett Smith is an unstoppable force in the world of entertainment. "I'm pretty hard to stop," she admitted to People. "When I want something, I go get it." As she told Essence, "I'm extremely ambitious. I don't know why people are afraid to say that." She is living proof of her own belief in self-definition; as she noted to GQ, "You can be sexy, you can be fragile, you can be vulnerable, and at the same time be very strong and have something to say."
Works
Selected works
Film- Menace II Society, 1993.
- The Inkwell, 1994.
- Jason's Lyric, 1994.
- A Low Down Dirty Shame, 1994.
- Demon Knight, 1995.
- The Nutty Professor, 1996.
- Set It Off, 1996.
- Scream 2, 1997.
- Woo, 1998.
- Bamboozled, 2000.
- Kingdom Come, 2001.
- Ali, 2001.
- The Matrix Reloaded, 2003.
- The Matrix Revolutions, 2003.
Television- A Different World, NBC, 1991-93.
- If These Walls Could Talk, HBO, 1996.
- (Co-producer) All of Us, UPN, 2003.
Further Reading
Books
- Notable Black American Women, Book 3, Gale Group, 2002.
Periodicals- Billboard, March 11, 1995, p. 45.
- Cosmopolitan, June 1998, p. 204-205.
- Entertainment Weekly, May 6, 1994, pp. 47-48; October 7, 1994, p. 54; December 9, 1994, p. 48; December 23, 1994, p. 48; November 16, 2001, pp. 78-80.
- Ebony, August 2003, pp. 40-43.
- Essence, January 1995, p. 83; June 2003, pp. 148-157.
- Jet, July 27, 1998, p. 61; November 20, 2000, p. 46.
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, July 24, 2003.
- GQ, November 1994, p. 237.
- People, December 19, 1994, pp. 55-56.
- Source, January 1995, p. 44.
On-line- "Jada Pinkett Smith," Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com (September 9, 2003).
- "Will Smith," All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com (September 22, 2003).
— Simon Glickman and Ralph G. Zerbonia
