Jada Pinkett Smith, part investor of Carol’s Daughter hair products and straight natural, is this month’s cover girl for Net-A-Porter’s online magazine The Edit. She discusses her new show Gotham, raising Jaden and Willow and her power marriage to Will Smith.
On loving Will and breaking the rules of relationships:
“The thing I’ve realized about sex trafficking is that every single woman is susceptible to being trafficked. It doesn’t matter what your background is, your economic status, what language you speak or the color of your skin. A lot of people want to believe it only happens to poor girls, and that’s not true. When I talk to these girls, I see myself, I see my mother, I see my daughter, I see my girlfriends, I see my sons. There are a lot of boys being trafficked as well, so this is a people problem.”
On how she handles gossip about an open marriage and her sexuality:
“The coping technique is knowing what the truth is – there’s no better technique. When you know that what’s going on in your house is so the opposite [of what’s being said], and you also know that when there’s mystery, people fill in the gaps, that’s OK,” she says. “And then you look back at it and look at how creative people can be, and it’s kind of entertaining. We can laugh because it’s so ridiculous. But I get it. I don’t take it personally.”
On playing a villain in the new series “Gotham”:
“Playing a villain is really about diving into your own personal shadows. I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s definitely fun,”
On aging:
“You know what?” she says with a laugh, “I don’t know if I feel stronger than ever, but I do feel better than ever. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that it’s about being physical every day. You don’t have to go to the gym if that’s not your thing. You can go outside your door and walk around your block. “You can take a brisk walk, a light jog, a slow stroll if you want! I feel like, as I’ve gotten older, I look better than ever and I work out less. I’m never in the gym for [more than] 45 minutes.”
On sex-trafficking:
“When your daughter comes to you and is like, ‘Hey Mom, do you know that there are people selling girls my age for sex in this country?’ My first response was, ‘Oh no, that doesn’t happen here.’ Then I did my research and I thought, ‘How could this be going on here and I not know?’ I felt ashamed and, being a woman in an industry that has a voice, I just felt this enormous amount of responsibility to at least let other people know. ‘Guess what guys? It’s not just happening over there. It’s happening right here.’ I just had to get that word out.”
On her most shocking discovery about sex-trafficking around the world:
“The thing I’ve realized about sex trafficking is that every single woman is susceptible to being trafficked. It doesn’t matter what your background is, your economic status, what language you speak or the color of your skin. A lot of people want to believe it only happens to poor girls, and that’s not true. When I talk to these girls, I see myself, I see my mother, I see my daughter, I see my girlfriends, I see my sons. There are a lot of boys being trafficked as well, so this is a people problem.”
On raising Jaden and Willow and letting them make mistakes:
“I want my kids to be happy and I want them to be themselves. I was saying to a friend the other day, ‘Remember, our kids are not us.’ They’re not. Sometimes we’re trying to fix things that happened to us or projecting [onto them], and that’s a terrible, terrible trap.”
On the value of women in society and respecting feminine energy:
“It’s really tough. I feel like the connection to the value of women on a bigger scale has decreased tremendously. Even though you look and go, ‘Women have so many opportunities,’ it’s like, ‘Yeah, but at what cost?’ Are women valued for being women, or are women valued when they have more masculine qualities? Men and women encompass both female and masculine energies, but it seems like when the feminine is present, it’s not respected.”
