WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.940 Everyone thinks they know Jada Pinkett Smith. 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:05.419 I mean, really. If you've scrolled through any 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:08.419 social media feed in, what, the last five years, 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:11.119 you have absolutely seen the meme. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:11.300 --> 00:00:13.939 The Red Table Talk glare. That glare, yes. You've 00:00:13.939 --> 00:00:16.699 seen the Oscar slap, of course, and the, uh, 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:20.440 just... Endless, endless dissection of her marriage 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:23.359 to Will Smith. It's gotten to this point of saturation 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:26.079 where she's almost become like a caricature of 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.379 herself in the public eye. Which is so fascinating 00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:30.280 because when you actually sit down with the source 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:32.500 material, and we have a lot of it, the biographical 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:35.020 records, the business filings, her filmography, 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:39.039 and especially her 2023 memoir, Worthy. That 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:42.000 whole caricature. falls apart. It really does. 00:00:42.179 --> 00:00:43.600 Or, you know, at least it reveals itself to be 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:46.060 this tiny, tiny fraction of a much more complex 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:48.460 reality. That is exactly what struck me going 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:50.579 through the stack for this deep dive. We were 00:00:50.579 --> 00:00:52.579 talking about a woman who was named one of the 00:00:52.579 --> 00:00:55.280 100 most influential people in the world by Time 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:58.280 magazine in 2021. 2021. Not that long ago. Not 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:00.799 at all. And yet the conversation is almost always, 00:01:00.939 --> 00:01:04.859 you know, reduced to Will Smith's wife or the 00:01:04.859 --> 00:01:08.120 lady who admitted to an entanglement. But the 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:10.180 data, the actual facts, they paint a picture 00:01:10.180 --> 00:01:12.980 of someone who has been. Just completely defying 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:15.579 categorization for 30 years. And that's really 00:01:15.579 --> 00:01:18.200 the mission of this deep dive, isn't it? We need 00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:21.099 to unpack the trajectory of a woman who went 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:23.680 from, and this is a fact, selling crack cocaine 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.500 in Baltimore during the absolute height of the 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:29.379 epidemic. Right. To fronting a new metal band 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:32.560 at Ozzfest. To running a full -blown media empire. 00:01:32.859 --> 00:01:35.319 The narrative isn't just actress gets famous. 00:01:35.459 --> 00:01:38.780 It's about a constant, almost militant refusal 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:42.180 to fit into any single box. And the sheer volume 00:01:42.180 --> 00:01:44.799 of data we have on her is just wild. We've got 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:47.379 deep dives into her specific ancestry. We have 00:01:47.379 --> 00:01:49.219 investment portfolios that would make a Wall 00:01:49.219 --> 00:01:51.900 Street broker blush. And, you know, detailed 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:53.500 accounts of her time at the Baltimore School 00:01:53.500 --> 00:01:55.620 for the Arts. It's all there. So, yeah, let's 00:01:55.620 --> 00:01:57.400 forget the memes for an hour. Let's just look 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:00.900 at the actual life. And we have to start in Baltimore. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.719 September 18th, 1971. Jada Corrin Pinkett is 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:09.280 born. And even her name was kind of a statement. 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:11.919 Named after Jada Rowland, who was her mother's 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:14.060 favorite soap opera actress. It's almost prophetic, 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:16.719 right? Like, she was sort of earmarked for drama 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:19.680 and, I mean, theatrical drama from day one. Exactly. 00:02:19.819 --> 00:02:22.340 But the environment she was born into, it was 00:02:22.340 --> 00:02:26.099 not a soap opera set. It was intense. Intense 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:28.780 is putting it so mildly. To understand Jada, 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:30.800 you really have to look at the lineage. On her 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:33.580 mother's side, you have this rich... Caribbean 00:02:33.580 --> 00:02:35.659 heritage. We're talking Jamaican and Bajan roots 00:02:35.659 --> 00:02:38.120 on her father's side, African -American. But 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:41.050 that core parental dynamic was fractured. I mean, 00:02:41.050 --> 00:02:43.990 almost immediately. Her mother, Adrienne Banfield 00:02:43.990 --> 00:02:46.169 Norris, who people now know from Red Table Talk. 00:02:46.289 --> 00:02:48.509 Gammy. Gammy, yeah. She became pregnant in high 00:02:48.509 --> 00:02:50.729 school. She married Jada's father, Robsal Pickett 00:02:50.729 --> 00:02:54.069 Jr. But that marriage just, it dissolved almost 00:02:54.069 --> 00:02:55.969 instantly. And Robsal wasn't just, you know, 00:02:55.990 --> 00:02:58.229 absent. He was a really complex figure in his 00:02:58.229 --> 00:03:00.110 own right. He ran a construction company, so 00:03:00.110 --> 00:03:02.310 he had that entrepreneurial drive. But he was 00:03:02.310 --> 00:03:05.389 also battling a very severe addiction. And that 00:03:05.389 --> 00:03:08.949 addiction narrative, it seems to haunt the periphery 00:03:08.949 --> 00:03:11.439 of Jada's entire life. life story. It really 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:14.599 does. It sets up this recurring theme of addiction 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:17.860 and recovery that she deals with for decades. 00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:21.680 She eventually even credits Scientology's Narconon 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:24.800 program for helping him get clean much, much 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:26.500 later in his life. Right. We'll have to circle 00:03:26.500 --> 00:03:28.400 back to the Scientology connections because that's 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:30.900 a whole thing. It is. But in those very early 00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:35.189 years, the stability. It just didn't come from 00:03:35.189 --> 00:03:37.210 her parents. It came from her grandmother. Mary 00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:39.449 Martin Banfield. I love reading about this woman. 00:03:39.490 --> 00:03:41.569 She just sounds like an absolute force of nature. 00:03:41.849 --> 00:03:44.590 A Jamaican -born social worker. Jada calls her 00:03:44.590 --> 00:03:47.389 a doer. And that's a very specific type of person, 00:03:47.469 --> 00:03:49.310 you know, especially in a community that's struggling. 00:03:49.430 --> 00:03:51.949 A doer. Marian wasn't just trying to keep the 00:03:51.949 --> 00:03:54.189 lights on. She was actively trying to build a 00:03:54.189 --> 00:03:57.030 better community. Jada describes her as the moral 00:03:57.030 --> 00:03:59.789 compass. She's the one who looked at this little 00:03:59.789 --> 00:04:02.530 girl in the middle of Baltimore and said, essentially, 00:04:03.050 --> 00:04:05.270 You're going to be cultured. You're going to 00:04:05.270 --> 00:04:08.789 appreciate beauty and art. And that's the part 00:04:08.789 --> 00:04:11.550 that just gets me. Because Baltimore in the 70s 00:04:11.550 --> 00:04:14.770 and 80s was... It was rough. We're talking about 00:04:14.770 --> 00:04:17.589 the era of The Wire, basically. But Marion is 00:04:17.589 --> 00:04:20.329 enrolling Jada in piano lessons, tap dance and 00:04:20.329 --> 00:04:24.370 ballet. She's curating this entire artistic education 00:04:24.370 --> 00:04:27.509 in the middle of a very, very hard environment. 00:04:27.649 --> 00:04:31.310 And that act right there, that creates the central 00:04:31.310 --> 00:04:35.009 tension of Jada's entire youth. It's this profound 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:38.269 duality. On the one hand, she's a twig. She's 00:04:38.269 --> 00:04:40.519 participating in this. very competitive after 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:42.639 -school arts program. She eventually gets into 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:44.800 the Baltimore School for the Arts, the BSA, which 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:47.339 is a really prestigious institution. She graduated 00:04:47.339 --> 00:04:50.360 in 89. Exactly. She's studying dance and drama. 00:04:50.540 --> 00:04:52.939 She's reading plays. She's perfecting her posture 00:04:52.939 --> 00:04:55.360 at the bar. She's in that world. And on the other 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:57.750 hand... She is in the streets, and I don't mean 00:04:57.750 --> 00:04:59.970 she was just like hanging out on the block. She 00:04:59.970 --> 00:05:02.569 was living a completely different parallel life. 00:05:02.629 --> 00:05:04.410 Completely parallel. The sources say she was 00:05:04.410 --> 00:05:06.449 raised in Pimlico and Arlington, but she was 00:05:06.449 --> 00:05:08.509 hanging out in places like Cold Spring, Dolefield. 00:05:08.709 --> 00:05:10.050 I mean, these are neighborhoods where you got 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:12.089 to keep your head on a swivel. It's the stark 00:05:12.089 --> 00:05:14.550 contrast between the ballet bar and the corner. 00:05:14.910 --> 00:05:17.209 By the time she's a teenager, she's not just 00:05:17.209 --> 00:05:19.519 going to dance recitals. She's a regular at clubs 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:22.180 like Odell's and Godfrey's famous ballroom. Legendary 00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:25.040 spots. And she's not just an observer in this 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.959 world. She has admitted on the record many times 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:30.459 to selling drugs in the Cherry Hill neighborhood. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:32.779 OK, let's just pause on that for a second, because 00:05:32.779 --> 00:05:35.160 a lot of celebrities will say they were in the 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:37.980 streets to get some clout. But Jada was actually 00:05:37.980 --> 00:05:41.860 like moving product while simultaneously attending 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:44.860 a high level performing arts school. Yes. The 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:47.459 cognitive dissonance required to navigate those 00:05:47.459 --> 00:05:49.899 two worlds every single day is staggering to 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:52.000 me. It is. But I also think it's a skill set. 00:05:52.139 --> 00:05:54.040 I mean, think about what drug dealing actually 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:57.339 requires. OK. Risk assessment, reading people 00:05:57.339 --> 00:06:00.420 instantly, high stakes negotiation, understanding 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:03.500 leverage and power dynamics. If you can successfully 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:06.829 navigate a drug deal in Sherry Hill. at 16 years 00:06:06.829 --> 00:06:10.189 old, without getting shot or arrested, then dealing 00:06:10.189 --> 00:06:12.389 with Hollywood agents is frankly a walk in the 00:06:12.389 --> 00:06:14.970 park. That's a really great point. It honestly 00:06:14.970 --> 00:06:17.930 explains that kind of steeliness she has. She 00:06:17.930 --> 00:06:20.449 never looks rattled in interviews. Ever. Never. 00:06:20.870 --> 00:06:23.410 Because she learned to wear a mask very early 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:26.089 on. She had the art school Jada mask and the 00:06:26.089 --> 00:06:28.470 Cherry Hill Jada mask. And if you look at her 00:06:28.470 --> 00:06:30.750 filmography later, which we'll get into, she 00:06:30.750 --> 00:06:33.230 is constantly playing these characters who are 00:06:33.230 --> 00:06:37.019 tough. raw survivors. Right. That's not method 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:39.519 acting. For her, that's just sense memory. Speaking 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:42.180 of the Baltimore School for the Arts, we absolutely 00:06:42.180 --> 00:06:44.220 have to talk about the other luminary walking 00:06:44.220 --> 00:06:46.600 those same halls, the relationship that really 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.699 defines her entire early life, Tupac Shakur. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:52.420 You cannot tell Jada's story without Tupac. It's 00:06:52.420 --> 00:06:55.329 impossible. They met at BSA. And by all accounts, 00:06:55.449 --> 00:06:57.889 the bond was instantaneous. But people always, 00:06:57.949 --> 00:07:00.490 always want to romanticize it into a sexual thing. 00:07:00.649 --> 00:07:03.029 Yeah, they do. And Jada has been fighting that 00:07:03.029 --> 00:07:06.110 specific narrative for 30 years. She calls him 00:07:06.110 --> 00:07:08.370 a once -in -a -lifetime relationship. She says 00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:10.610 he was one of my best friends, like a brother. 00:07:10.910 --> 00:07:13.850 And Tupac said, quote, Jada is my heart. We'll 00:07:13.850 --> 00:07:16.199 be old together. I mean, that is heavy. It's 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:18.620 so heavy. It sounds so much more like soulmates 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:21.579 than lovers. I think so. It feels more like that 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:25.920 Greek concept of agape or philia, a love that 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:28.759 kind of transcends romance. And Jada has always 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:31.620 maintained it was platonic. In fact, she revealed 00:07:31.620 --> 00:07:34.519 a detail in her memoir, Worthy, that I think 00:07:34.519 --> 00:07:36.579 shocked a lot of people. A proposal. The marriage 00:07:36.579 --> 00:07:38.680 proposal, yeah. This was when he was at Rikers 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:40.899 Island in 1995, right? That's correct. He was 00:07:40.899 --> 00:07:43.379 incarcerated, facing really serious time. He 00:07:43.379 --> 00:07:46.250 proposes marriage to her from prison. And Jada, 00:07:46.370 --> 00:07:49.449 despite loving him so deeply, said no. That must 00:07:49.449 --> 00:07:51.730 have been an incredibly hard decision. I mean, 00:07:51.750 --> 00:07:54.470 can you imagine? But she knew that merging their 00:07:54.470 --> 00:07:56.750 lives legally, especially with the absolute chaos 00:07:56.750 --> 00:07:59.350 surrounding him at that time, was just a path 00:07:59.350 --> 00:08:01.829 she couldn't go down. That takes an incredible 00:08:01.829 --> 00:08:03.709 amount of maturity and self -awareness for a 00:08:03.709 --> 00:08:05.930 woman in her early 20s. But she didn't abandon 00:08:05.930 --> 00:08:08.730 him. Not at all. The loyalty she showed him, 00:08:08.750 --> 00:08:10.990 both before and during that time, is just the 00:08:10.990 --> 00:08:13.870 stuff of legend. The bail money is the detail 00:08:13.870 --> 00:08:17.269 that always, always sticks out to me. $100 ,000. 00:08:17.569 --> 00:08:21.370 $100 ,000. In 1995 cash. And think about it. 00:08:21.389 --> 00:08:23.149 At that point, she was on a different world. 00:08:23.209 --> 00:08:25.529 She'd done a couple of movies. But she wasn't 00:08:25.529 --> 00:08:29.180 Will Smith rich yet. Not by a long shot. $100 00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:32.139 ,000 must have been a huge chunk of her entire 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:35.360 net worth. It was a massive, massive risk. He 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:37.639 was awaiting appeal on sexual abuse convictions. 00:08:38.200 --> 00:08:41.139 It was incredibly controversial to support him 00:08:41.139 --> 00:08:43.820 publicly like that. But she put the money up 00:08:43.820 --> 00:08:46.490 because he was her person. And it wasn't just 00:08:46.490 --> 00:08:48.490 financial. She put her career on the line for 00:08:48.490 --> 00:08:50.649 him professionally, too. The Menesthetic Society 00:08:50.649 --> 00:08:52.850 situation. The Menesthetic Society situation. 00:08:53.029 --> 00:08:55.870 Exactly. This is 1993. This is supposed to be 00:08:55.870 --> 00:08:57.750 her breakout film role. She gets the part of 00:08:57.750 --> 00:09:00.049 Ronnie and she actually got the role through 00:09:00.049 --> 00:09:02.730 Tupac. He helped her get in the door. But when 00:09:02.730 --> 00:09:05.230 the directors, the Hughes brothers, fired Tupac 00:09:05.230 --> 00:09:08.230 after some kind of onset conflict. Jada was ready 00:09:08.230 --> 00:09:10.149 to walk. She was going to quit her first big 00:09:10.149 --> 00:09:12.789 movie in solidarity. Which is just absolute career 00:09:12.789 --> 00:09:15.450 suicide for a rookie actor. Total suicide. Tupac 00:09:15.450 --> 00:09:17.370 himself had to talk her off the ledge. He was 00:09:17.370 --> 00:09:18.789 the one who convinced her to stay and do the 00:09:18.789 --> 00:09:22.110 movie. But she held that grudge. She did. Later 00:09:22.110 --> 00:09:23.970 on, when the Hughes brothers were casting their 00:09:23.970 --> 00:09:26.750 next film, Dead Presidents, they offered her 00:09:26.750 --> 00:09:30.190 a role. She turned it down flat. And she specifically 00:09:30.190 --> 00:09:34.070 cited her loyalty to Tupac as a reason why. In 00:09:34.070 --> 00:09:35.789 Hollywood, where people would, you know, sell 00:09:35.789 --> 00:09:38.029 their own grandmother for a lead role, that kind 00:09:38.029 --> 00:09:41.009 of principled stand is almost unheard of. It's 00:09:41.009 --> 00:09:43.509 incredible. It really is. It highlights that 00:09:43.509 --> 00:09:45.730 street code we were talking about earlier. You 00:09:45.730 --> 00:09:48.929 don't cross the family. You stay loyal. And even 00:09:48.929 --> 00:09:51.549 after he passed, she kept that connection alive 00:09:51.549 --> 00:09:54.649 in a very public way. The theater. She donated 00:09:54.649 --> 00:09:56.529 a million dollars to the Baltimore School for 00:09:56.529 --> 00:09:59.769 the Arts in 2006, and she named the new theater 00:09:59.769 --> 00:10:02.649 after him. So his name is literally on the building 00:10:02.649 --> 00:10:05.490 where they first met. It's a tragic but very 00:10:05.490 --> 00:10:08.629 beautiful arc. So while she's navigating this 00:10:08.629 --> 00:10:10.990 incredibly intense personal saga with Tupac, 00:10:11.110 --> 00:10:12.970 she's also trying to break into Hollywood for 00:10:12.970 --> 00:10:15.190 real. And it wasn't like she just walked onto 00:10:15.190 --> 00:10:17.909 the A -list. It was a grind. Oh, it was a standard 00:10:17.909 --> 00:10:20.389 L .A. hustle at first. She did a year at the 00:10:20.389 --> 00:10:22.049 North Carolina School of the Arts, then packed 00:10:22.049 --> 00:10:24.700 up and headed west. She got the usual guest spots, 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:27.919 True Colors, 21 Jump Street, even Doogie Howser, 00:10:28.019 --> 00:10:29.759 M .D. Right, paying the bills. Paying the bills. 00:10:29.860 --> 00:10:33.000 But the real pivot, the game changer, was 1991, 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:36.480 a different world. Lena James. The character 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.779 of Lena James was, I mean, it was basically Jada, 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:43.399 a tough girl from a poor part of Baltimore who's 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.440 trying to adjust to the, you know. polite bourgeois 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:49.399 atmosphere of a historically black college campus. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:51.980 It is art imitating life perfectly. She brought 00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:54.200 that around the way girl energy to Hillman College 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:56.580 and it just popped off the screen. And if you 00:10:56.580 --> 00:10:58.240 look at the arc of that character, it's also 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:00.059 really interesting. Lena starts as an engineering 00:11:00.059 --> 00:11:03.039 major. all about the hard facts, then switches 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:05.580 to journalism. She's smart, she's sharp, but 00:11:05.580 --> 00:11:08.000 she's always a bit of a fish out of water. That 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.860 role let Jada showcase her natural charisma and 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.279 that specific edge she has. It made her a household 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:15.759 name in black households, absolutely. But she 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.720 was already eyeing the mainstream. And 1994 seems 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.019 to be the year that the dam just completely broke 00:11:21.019 --> 00:11:23.659 for her. A low -down, dirty shame. Directed by 00:11:23.659 --> 00:11:27.049 Keenan Ivory Wayans. A huge hit. And the critics 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:29.190 loved her. The New York Times called her performance 00:11:29.190 --> 00:11:32.330 sassy and sizzling. Sassy and sizzling. I love 00:11:32.330 --> 00:11:34.710 that. Then she does Jason's lyric in the exact 00:11:34.710 --> 00:11:38.690 same year. And Roger Ebert, who was famously 00:11:38.690 --> 00:11:41.230 tough on everyone, he specifically praised her 00:11:41.230 --> 00:11:44.149 chemistry with Alan Payne. He wrote that they 00:11:44.149 --> 00:11:45.909 actually seemed to like each other, which he 00:11:45.909 --> 00:11:48.029 said was a surprisingly rare quality in screen 00:11:48.029 --> 00:11:50.850 romances. That's high praise from Ebert. But 00:11:50.850 --> 00:11:55.289 then we get to 1996. And that's the year. I mean. 00:11:55.710 --> 00:11:59.029 The Nutty Professor. That is a global smash hit. 00:11:59.590 --> 00:12:03.009 $274 million worldwide. She's playing opposite 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:05.590 Eddie Murphy at the absolute peak of his comeback. 00:12:06.049 --> 00:12:08.389 She's the sweet, charming love interest Carla 00:12:08.389 --> 00:12:11.269 Purdy. It proves she could anchor a four -quadrant 00:12:11.269 --> 00:12:13.990 blockbuster. A huge deal. But then in the exact 00:12:13.990 --> 00:12:16.860 same year... She drops Set It Off. And Set It 00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:18.480 Off is a cultural monument. I don't think you 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:20.200 can overstate how important that movie is, especially 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:22.440 for black cinema. No, you can't. It's just critical. 00:12:22.620 --> 00:12:24.879 He plays Stoney. She's one of four women who 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:27.000 are robbing banks to try and escape poverty. 00:12:27.399 --> 00:12:29.919 It's gritty. It's violent. It's deeply tragic. 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:32.600 And to go from the sweet girlfriend and the nutty 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:35.240 professor to a desperate bank robber and set 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:37.299 it off in the same calendar year, that showed 00:12:37.299 --> 00:12:39.519 the entire industry that she had serious range. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:42.980 The San Francisco Chronicle reviewed it and labeled 00:12:42.980 --> 00:12:45.059 her the one to watch after that performance. 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:47.500 Which then leads directly into the blockbuster, 00:12:47.620 --> 00:12:50.740 Scream 2 in 97. Which is such an iconic opening 00:12:50.740 --> 00:12:53.139 scene. Getting murdered in front of the movie 00:12:53.139 --> 00:12:55.100 theater audience watching a movie about themselves, 00:12:55.340 --> 00:12:58.759 it's so meta. It's perfect. And then, The Matrix. 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:01.919 Niobe. Yeah, this is where she becomes a true 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:06.629 action icon. This was 2003 for Reloaded and Revolutions. 00:13:06.929 --> 00:13:09.250 And the best part of this story is that the Wachowskis 00:13:09.250 --> 00:13:11.809 wrote the character of Niobe specifically for 00:13:11.809 --> 00:13:14.409 her. They didn't even audition her. No audition. 00:13:14.549 --> 00:13:17.269 They just wanted Jada. That's a flex. That is 00:13:17.269 --> 00:13:19.870 a serious flex. It is. And think about the timing. 00:13:20.029 --> 00:13:23.029 She had just finished filming Ali, where she 00:13:23.029 --> 00:13:25.789 played a completely different type of role. Muhammad 00:13:25.789 --> 00:13:28.850 Ali's first wife, Sanji Roy. Very period specific. 00:13:29.090 --> 00:13:31.789 Very dramatic. And then she immediately cuts 00:13:31.789 --> 00:13:34.370 her hair. Puts on the leather trench coat and 00:13:34.370 --> 00:13:36.629 becomes this badass spaceship captain. And she 00:13:36.629 --> 00:13:38.590 did the video game for it too, right? Enter the 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:40.990 Matrix. Which was a massive deal at the time. 00:13:41.009 --> 00:13:42.669 She actually won an Interactive Achievement Award 00:13:42.669 --> 00:13:45.590 for that performance. People forget that the 00:13:45.590 --> 00:13:49.029 Enter the Matrix game had a full hour of live 00:13:49.029 --> 00:13:51.929 action footage that was directed by the Wachowskis 00:13:51.929 --> 00:13:55.110 that was not in the movies. Wow. So Jada was 00:13:55.110 --> 00:13:57.789 basically carrying a third interactive movie 00:13:57.789 --> 00:14:01.980 on her back for the gaming console. It totally 00:14:01.980 --> 00:14:04.460 solidified her status as a physical performer 00:14:04.460 --> 00:14:07.080 and an action star. So, okay, let's recap. We 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:09.620 have drama Jada, we have comedy Jada, we have 00:14:09.620 --> 00:14:13.059 action Jada. And then we get metal Jada. Yes. 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:16.639 Wicked wisdom. This is the part of her career 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:18.799 that I think confuses people the most, but honestly, 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:21.789 I find it the most fascinating. In 2002, at pretty 00:14:21.789 --> 00:14:23.590 much the height of her Hollywood fame, she decides 00:14:23.590 --> 00:14:25.830 to form a new metal band. And let's be really 00:14:25.830 --> 00:14:28.129 clear. This was not some like pop rock vanity 00:14:28.129 --> 00:14:30.070 project. This was heavy. This was aggressive 00:14:30.070 --> 00:14:32.370 music. Yeah. And the motivation is key. She said 00:14:32.370 --> 00:14:34.850 she grew up listening to Metallica and Guns N' 00:14:34.950 --> 00:14:37.289 Roses. Right. Yeah. And she looked around the 00:14:37.289 --> 00:14:40.470 metal scene in the early 2000s and saw, you know, 00:14:40.470 --> 00:14:43.950 basically zero black women. And she essentially 00:14:43.950 --> 00:14:46.029 asked the question, why can't I do that? Why 00:14:46.029 --> 00:14:48.370 can't I rock out like Axl Rose? The band lineup 00:14:48.370 --> 00:14:50.450 was legit, too. It wasn't just a bunch of session 00:14:50.450 --> 00:14:53.289 guys. Pocket Honor in guitar, Cameron Worm Graves, 00:14:53.350 --> 00:14:56.210 Rio on bass. And it was all managed by Overbrook, 00:14:56.210 --> 00:14:58.970 Will's company. Right. But the pivotal moment, 00:14:59.110 --> 00:15:03.480 the trial by fire, was OzFest 2005. This story 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:06.620 is incredible. It is. So Sharon Osbourne saw 00:15:06.620 --> 00:15:09.299 them play a tiny club in L .A. and was apparently 00:15:09.299 --> 00:15:12.100 just blown away by Jada's stage presence. So 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:14.559 she books them for OzFest. Now you have to understand, 00:15:14.620 --> 00:15:17.080 the OzFest crowd in the mid -2000s. It is not 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:19.259 a friendly crowd. Not for outsiders. This is 00:15:19.259 --> 00:15:21.120 a hostile environment for anything that even 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.639 smells like Hollywood or inauthentic. You have 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:26.460 these hardcore metalheads who paid to see Slayer 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:29.000 and Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. And here comes 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:31.059 the actress from The Nutty Professor fronting 00:15:31.059 --> 00:15:33.279 a metal band. I read reports that people were 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:36.320 throwing bottles, booing them offstage. Oh, it 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.620 was brutal. The first few dates were incredibly 00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:41.240 rocky. People were yelling, go home, actress. 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:44.940 There were racial slurs, misogyny, just all of 00:15:44.940 --> 00:15:47.919 it. But Jada's response to that was pure Baltimore. 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:51.740 Her quote was, I'm not here asking for any favors. 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:54.120 You've got to show and prove. Show and prove. 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:56.960 That's the motto. She went out there every single 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:00.820 night and just screamed her lungs out. She threw 00:16:00.820 --> 00:16:03.460 her body around the stage. And the band members 00:16:03.460 --> 00:16:06.019 all recount that by about the sixth or seventh 00:16:06.019 --> 00:16:10.340 gig, the tide actually turned. No. Yes. The metalheads 00:16:10.340 --> 00:16:12.240 stopped throwing bottles and they started moshing. 00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:14.639 She earned their respect in the absolute hardest 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:16.799 way possible. That's that grit we were talking 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:18.519 about from the intro. It would have been so, 00:16:18.620 --> 00:16:20.740 so easy for her to quit and go back to her mansion 00:16:20.740 --> 00:16:23.360 in Calabasas. But she stayed on the tour bus. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:25.720 And she even did a tour opening for Britney Spears 00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:28.519 on the Onyx Hotel tour. Which has to be the most 00:16:28.519 --> 00:16:30.960 bizarre billing in music history. This is laughing. 00:16:31.860 --> 00:16:34.659 Wicked wisdom opening for Britney Spears. I can't 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:36.919 even imagine. And they toured with Seven Dust, 00:16:37.139 --> 00:16:40.019 a very respected heavy band. It just showed she 00:16:40.019 --> 00:16:41.720 wasn't doing it for the money. She certainly 00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:43.980 didn't need touring money. She was doing it purely 00:16:43.980 --> 00:16:46.600 for the expression. So while she's conquering 00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:49.220 Ozzfest and the box office, her personal life 00:16:49.220 --> 00:16:52.019 is becoming a global brand in itself. The marriage 00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:54.620 to Will Smith. The ultimate power couple of the 00:16:54.620 --> 00:16:57.840 late 90s and 2000s. But again, the origin story 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:00.059 is messier and more interesting than people remember. 00:17:00.659 --> 00:17:03.139 They met on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel 00:17:03.139 --> 00:17:07.220 -Air in 1994. Jada auditioned for the role of 00:17:07.220 --> 00:17:09.799 Lisa Wilkes, Will's girlfriend. And they told 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:12.380 her she was too short. Can you believe it? Too 00:17:12.380 --> 00:17:15.819 short. Nia Long got the part. But Will was apparently 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:18.779 immediately smitten. He said he felt a spark. 00:17:19.380 --> 00:17:22.039 But... And this is a key detail. He didn't act 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:23.559 on it because he was still married to his first 00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:25.920 wife, Cherie Fletcher. So he was respectful about 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.660 it. He was. He only reached out to Jada in 1995 00:17:28.660 --> 00:17:31.220 after that marriage had officially ended. And 00:17:31.220 --> 00:17:33.579 then came the wedding. New Year's Eve, 1997. 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:36.900 At the Cloisters, this beautiful castle -like 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:39.720 mansion near Baltimore. A very lavish, very secret 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:42.720 wedding. And Jada is three months pregnant with 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:45.380 Jaden at the time. And this is a detail from 00:17:45.380 --> 00:17:48.349 her recent press tour that... really, really 00:17:48.349 --> 00:17:50.970 reframes everything. She did not want a wedding. 00:17:51.130 --> 00:17:52.549 She said she cried the whole way down the aisle, 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:54.789 right? Cried the whole way and not happy tears. 00:17:55.109 --> 00:17:57.670 She said she felt enormous pressure, specifically 00:17:57.670 --> 00:18:00.130 from her mother, Adrienne, to have a traditional 00:18:00.130 --> 00:18:03.490 ceremony because she was pregnant. Jade has been 00:18:03.490 --> 00:18:05.849 quoted saying she never wanted to be married 00:18:05.849 --> 00:18:09.309 in that institutional sense. She said this amazing 00:18:09.309 --> 00:18:12.069 thing, I will throw my career away before I let 00:18:12.069 --> 00:18:14.430 it break up our marriage. She meant the partnership, 00:18:14.609 --> 00:18:17.789 the union. but the actual wedding ceremony. She 00:18:17.789 --> 00:18:20.130 said she hated it. Wow, that really sets the 00:18:20.130 --> 00:18:21.930 stage for everything that follows, doesn't it? 00:18:21.990 --> 00:18:24.029 From day one, there was this intense friction 00:18:24.029 --> 00:18:27.269 between the societal expectation of what marriage 00:18:27.269 --> 00:18:29.990 should be and what Jada actually wanted for her 00:18:29.990 --> 00:18:32.329 life. Exactly. They went on to build this incredible 00:18:32.329 --> 00:18:35.750 life. Jaden born in 98, Willow in 2000, and she 00:18:35.750 --> 00:18:37.750 became a stepmother to Trey from Will's first 00:18:37.750 --> 00:18:40.569 marriage. But their whole parenting style was 00:18:40.569 --> 00:18:44.230 always alternative. The gardening analogy. Will 00:18:44.230 --> 00:18:47.109 called it gardening. His philosophy was you just 00:18:47.109 --> 00:18:49.069 water the seed and let the child become what 00:18:49.069 --> 00:18:51.390 they are, rather than trying to force them into 00:18:51.390 --> 00:18:55.529 a shape you've predetermined. Which, you know, 00:18:55.549 --> 00:18:57.750 leads us to the study tech controversy. Yes. 00:18:58.269 --> 00:19:00.289 This is something that pops up in the background 00:19:00.289 --> 00:19:02.690 of their lives for years. It's the Scientology 00:19:02.690 --> 00:19:05.450 connection. They founded their own school, the 00:19:05.450 --> 00:19:08.329 New Village Leadership Academy, in Calabasas. 00:19:08.630 --> 00:19:11.170 And they openly used a teaching method called 00:19:11.170 --> 00:19:14.210 study technology, which was developed by L. Ron 00:19:14.210 --> 00:19:16.369 Hubbard. OK, so can you explain what that actually 00:19:16.369 --> 00:19:19.009 is? Because people hear Scientology and they 00:19:19.009 --> 00:19:21.990 immediately freak out. In theory, on paper, it's 00:19:21.990 --> 00:19:24.569 about a concept called word clearing. The idea 00:19:24.569 --> 00:19:26.750 is to make sure a student understands the definition 00:19:26.750 --> 00:19:29.009 of every single word in a sentence before they 00:19:29.009 --> 00:19:32.369 move on to ensure full comprehension. Which sounds 00:19:32.369 --> 00:19:35.190 benign enough. It sounds benign. But because 00:19:35.190 --> 00:19:37.470 it's the foundational pedagogy of Scientology 00:19:37.470 --> 00:19:40.650 itself, many educators and former members view 00:19:40.650 --> 00:19:43.759 it as a kind of gateway to the doctrine. The 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:45.880 Smiths poured millions of their own money into 00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:48.640 this school, and they used the method for homeschooling 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:50.779 Jaden and Willow. But they never officially joined 00:19:50.779 --> 00:19:53.079 the Church of Scientology. They have always, 00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:56.480 always denied being Scientologists. Jada credited 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.619 the Narconon program, which is also Hubbard -based, 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:02.970 for helping her father get sober. So she clearly 00:20:02.970 --> 00:20:05.730 saw value in some of the tools, but they always 00:20:05.730 --> 00:20:07.670 maintained an independence from the organization 00:20:07.670 --> 00:20:10.569 itself. And it's just another example of them 00:20:10.569 --> 00:20:13.329 taking what they want from a system and completely 00:20:13.329 --> 00:20:15.970 ignoring the labels and the baggage. Which brings 00:20:15.970 --> 00:20:18.650 us to the rumors. I mean, the open marriage whispers, 00:20:18.650 --> 00:20:22.690 they started way back in early 2010. Around 2013, 00:20:23.029 --> 00:20:25.349 yeah. Jada gave an interview where she said something 00:20:25.349 --> 00:20:27.390 like, Will can do whatever he wants as long as 00:20:27.390 --> 00:20:29.799 he can look himself in the mirror. And the tabloids 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:31.839 just ran with it. Of course. The headlines were, 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:35.160 Jada confirms open marriage. She had to go on 00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:37.420 Facebook and write this long post clarifying 00:20:37.420 --> 00:20:39.579 that she meant their relationship was based on 00:20:39.579 --> 00:20:42.339 deep trust and love, not that they were, you 00:20:42.339 --> 00:20:45.200 know, swingers. But where there's smoke, well, 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:47.599 in this case, there was August Alsina. 2020, 00:20:47.859 --> 00:20:50.440 the year that everything just broke wide open. 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:54.079 August Alsina, an R &B singer who was friends 00:20:54.079 --> 00:20:56.660 with their son, Jayden. goes on a radio show 00:20:56.660 --> 00:20:59.640 and claims he had this intense, years -long affair 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:02.940 with Jada. And the kicker was he claimed he had 00:21:02.940 --> 00:21:04.740 Will's permission. That was the part that blew 00:21:04.740 --> 00:21:06.799 it all up. Yeah. Because that implies the open 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:09.880 marriage was real all along. So that forced Jada's 00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:12.259 hand. Completely. She took herself to the red 00:21:12.259 --> 00:21:16.910 table. July 2020, the infamous entanglement episode. 00:21:17.190 --> 00:21:19.650 That one word changed pop culture for a solid 00:21:19.650 --> 00:21:21.809 year. It really did. Yeah. And in that episode, 00:21:21.930 --> 00:21:24.390 she did confirm the relationship. But the context 00:21:24.390 --> 00:21:26.650 she gave is the part that I think everyone conveniently 00:21:26.650 --> 00:21:29.769 ignores. Which was? She said that at the time, 00:21:29.769 --> 00:21:32.710 she and Will were separated amicably. They were 00:21:32.710 --> 00:21:34.730 living apart. They were effectively done with 00:21:34.730 --> 00:21:36.190 the romantic part of their marriage. So when 00:21:36.190 --> 00:21:38.710 Alcina said he had Will's permission, Jada's 00:21:38.710 --> 00:21:41.130 argument was essentially, we were broken up. 00:21:41.339 --> 00:21:43.440 The only person whose permission was needed was 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:46.740 mine. Exactly. She was reclaiming her own agency 00:21:46.740 --> 00:21:48.660 in the narrative. Yeah. She wasn't a cheating 00:21:48.660 --> 00:21:51.420 wife. She was a separated woman who was exploring 00:21:51.420 --> 00:21:54.140 a connection during a very difficult time in 00:21:54.140 --> 00:21:56.579 her life. She said she eventually broke it off 00:21:56.579 --> 00:21:59.359 with him and she and Will reconciled. But that 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:02.200 episode just shattered the public illusion of 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:05.450 the perfect Smith family. But then her memoir 00:22:05.450 --> 00:22:08.369 Worthy comes out in 2023 and she drops the real 00:22:08.369 --> 00:22:11.190 bombshell, the one that recontextualizes everything. 00:22:11.509 --> 00:22:14.119 The Timeline. This is the crucial data point 00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:16.400 that changes the whole story. She revealed in 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:18.660 the book that she and Will have been living completely 00:22:18.660 --> 00:22:22.440 separate lives since 2016. 2016. That is six 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:25.940 years before the Oscars slap. Six years. So when 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:28.400 we, the public, watched them on red carpets, 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:30.400 when we saw the Happy Family Instagram posts, 00:22:30.460 --> 00:22:32.579 when we saw the slap, they were living in separate 00:22:32.579 --> 00:22:35.359 houses the entire time. Wow. They were, in her 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:37.259 words, emotional partners and business partners. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:40.279 They were legally married. but they were romantically 00:22:40.279 --> 00:22:43.059 and domestically divorced. That recontextualizes 00:22:43.059 --> 00:22:45.359 the slap entirely. It changes everything about 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:48.420 that moment. It does. Let's look at the Oscars 00:22:48.420 --> 00:22:52.680 in 2022. Chris Rock makes the G .I. Jane joke. 00:22:52.940 --> 00:22:56.420 Which is aimed directly at Jada's alopecia. And 00:22:56.420 --> 00:22:58.299 we need to talk about the alopecia. She was diagnosed 00:22:58.299 --> 00:23:01.019 in 2018. She said it was terrifying just seeing 00:23:01.019 --> 00:23:03.740 clumps of hair in her hands in the shower. Losing 00:23:03.740 --> 00:23:05.539 your hair is traumatic for anyone but for an 00:23:05.539 --> 00:23:08.140 actress whose beauty is part of her brand. It's 00:23:08.140 --> 00:23:10.420 devastating. Sure. She went public with it in 00:23:10.420 --> 00:23:14.079 December 2021, shaved her head, really tried 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:16.119 to own it. She posted a video saying, Mama's 00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:17.660 going to have to take it down to the scalp. Me 00:23:17.660 --> 00:23:19.440 and this alopecia are going to be friends. So 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:21.460 Chris Rock makes a joke about her shaved head. 00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:24.640 Will sees Jada roll her eyes. He sees the hurt 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:28.660 on her face. And he snaps. But knowing they were 00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:31.279 separated adds this whole other layer of, I don't 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:33.059 know, is it performative protection, is it guilt? 00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:36.019 He was defending the wife he wasn't actually 00:23:36.019 --> 00:23:38.599 living with as a husband. That's so complex. 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:40.819 It wasn't just about a joke at that point. It 00:23:40.819 --> 00:23:43.119 was about the complex, messy, undefined nature 00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.960 of their bond. He was asserting a husband role 00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:48.779 that, in private, didn't really exist in the 00:23:48.779 --> 00:23:51.019 traditional sense anymore. It's just tragic. 00:23:51.059 --> 00:23:53.359 It completely destroyed his public image, at 00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:54.960 least for a while, and it put her right back 00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:58.180 in the crosshairs as the villain who somehow 00:23:58.180 --> 00:24:01.279 made him do it. Which is so deeply unfair. She 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:03.960 didn't ask him to slap anyone. She rose her eyes. 00:24:04.220 --> 00:24:06.960 But because she's always been perceived as the 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:10.160 strong one or the one in control, the manipulator 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:13.359 narrative just took hold immediately. But through 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:15.740 all of this personal chaos, though, business 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:18.859 is booming. She is not just sitting at home dealing 00:24:18.859 --> 00:24:21.319 with drama. She's actively building companies. 00:24:21.640 --> 00:24:24.099 She's a full -on mogul. There's 100 % Women Productions, 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:26.539 her own company. Then there's Westbrook Inc., 00:24:26.539 --> 00:24:28.819 the massive media company she co -founded with 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:31.579 Will. She's an executive producer on Hawthorne. 00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:34.519 The medical drama she started on TNT. She produced 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:37.039 The Secret Life of Bees. And The Broadway Show. 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:40.779 Yes. She's a producer on Fela. on Broadway, which 00:24:40.779 --> 00:24:43.500 got nominated for 11 Tony Awards. And she was 00:24:43.500 --> 00:24:46.380 so early on the natural beauty wave, too. So 00:24:46.380 --> 00:24:48.839 early. She invested in Carol's daughter back 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:53.420 in 2005. That's Lisa Price's brand. Back then, 00:24:53.619 --> 00:24:55.799 big beauty companies were completely ignoring 00:24:55.799 --> 00:24:58.599 the natural hair market for black women. Jada 00:24:58.599 --> 00:25:01.140 saw the value, saw the community, and put her 00:25:01.140 --> 00:25:03.920 money there. That brand eventually sold to L 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:06.299 'Oreal for a fortune. That's just savvy investing. 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:08.319 And then there's Red Table Talk itself. That 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:10.839 show fundamentally changed the landscape of celebrity 00:25:10.839 --> 00:25:14.099 talk shows. It won a Daytime Emmy in 2021. But 00:25:14.099 --> 00:25:16.480 more importantly, it was a strategic masterstroke. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:19.660 By creating her own platform with her mother 00:25:19.660 --> 00:25:21.480 and her daughter, three generations of women, 00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.819 she completely removed the middleman. Right. 00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:26.339 She didn't have to go to Oprah or Diane Sawyer 00:25:26.339 --> 00:25:28.500 to explain her life. She could do it on her terms, 00:25:28.519 --> 00:25:30.839 at her own table, controlling the entire narrative. 00:25:31.059 --> 00:25:33.220 It's the ultimate control move. It's like, I 00:25:33.220 --> 00:25:35.099 will tell you about the affair, but I will do 00:25:35.099 --> 00:25:37.119 it on my show, and I will be the one who gets 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:39.279 the ratings and wins the Emmy for it. Precisely. 00:25:39.579 --> 00:25:42.779 It turns the scandal into content. It turns the 00:25:42.779 --> 00:25:45.759 pain into a product. And that is the definition 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:49.279 of a modern media mogul. So we've looked at the 00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:52.180 drug dealer, the art school kid, the sitcom star, 00:25:52.420 --> 00:25:55.039 the action hero, the rock star, the wife, the 00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:58.779 mogul. What is the through line here? When you 00:25:58.779 --> 00:26:01.259 look at all this data, what are we supposed to 00:26:01.259 --> 00:26:04.099 learn from the life of Jada Pinkett Smith? I 00:26:04.099 --> 00:26:06.160 think the key takeaway is a fundamental rejection 00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:10.240 of passivity. At no point in her story is Jada 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:13.099 Pinkett Smith a passenger in her own life. She 00:26:13.099 --> 00:26:15.220 is always in the driver's seat, whether she was 00:26:15.220 --> 00:26:18.000 facing down drug dealers in Cherry Hill or staring 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:20.539 down a hostile crowd of metalheads at Ozzfest 00:26:20.539 --> 00:26:23.380 or staring down a camera to confess a marital 00:26:23.380 --> 00:26:26.000 entanglement. She insists on being the author 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:28.380 of her own story. She lives in that duality we 00:26:28.380 --> 00:26:30.599 talked about at the top. She embodies it. Her 00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:32.839 life is proof that you can be classy and heard. 00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:35.480 You can be deeply spiritual and incredibly messy. 00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:38.180 You can be a devoted wife and a free agent all 00:26:38.180 --> 00:26:41.009 at the same time. She just refuses to simplify 00:26:41.009 --> 00:26:43.049 herself to make the rest of us comfortable. And 00:26:43.049 --> 00:26:44.769 I think that's probably why she triggers so many 00:26:44.769 --> 00:26:46.589 people. We want our celebrities to fit neatly 00:26:46.589 --> 00:26:49.069 into a box and she just burns the box down. She 00:26:49.069 --> 00:26:52.089 burns the box down and then dances in the ashes 00:26:52.089 --> 00:26:54.789 while fronting a metal band. So here's the thought 00:26:54.789 --> 00:26:56.390 that I want to leave everyone with as we wrap 00:26:56.390 --> 00:26:58.789 this up. We now know from the source material 00:26:58.789 --> 00:27:01.349 that she and Will have been separated since 2016. 00:27:02.589 --> 00:27:05.269 They say they're working on it, but they are 00:27:05.269 --> 00:27:08.539 content with this. Life partnership that isn't 00:27:08.539 --> 00:27:10.319 a traditional marriage. Right. A partnership. 00:27:10.519 --> 00:27:14.309 So my question is this. Is their relationship 00:27:14.309 --> 00:27:16.269 a failure because it didn't look like the fairy 00:27:16.269 --> 00:27:18.829 tale we all thought it was? Or is it actually 00:27:18.829 --> 00:27:21.650 a successful evolution of what a long term partnership 00:27:21.650 --> 00:27:23.970 can be? That's the question. Maybe they're just 00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:25.849 showing us what partnership looks like when that 00:27:25.849 --> 00:27:28.990 old promise of till death do us part meets the 00:27:28.990 --> 00:27:32.869 messy reality of modern, high pressure, constantly 00:27:32.869 --> 00:27:35.289 evolving lives. Maybe their marriage isn't broken. 00:27:35.509 --> 00:27:37.710 Maybe they're just more honest about its complexities 00:27:37.710 --> 00:27:39.839 than the rest of us are willing to be. It's a 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:42.359 really good question. Are we judging them because 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:44.880 they failed at the old model or because they 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:46.660 might be succeeding in a new one we don't understand 00:27:46.660 --> 00:27:48.920 yet? Something to think about. A huge thanks 00:27:48.920 --> 00:27:51.359 for diving deep with us today. This one was, 00:27:51.420 --> 00:27:53.720 yeah, this was a complex one. Always a pleasure. 00:27:53.819 --> 00:27:55.279 It was a great one. We'll see you on the next 00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:55.940 one. Keep digging.