It’s nothing but blue skies these days for Pinkett-Smith
She’s got it made on the home front, with two kids and a handsome husband who’s one of the most beloved movie stars on the planet.
And she’s got it made professionally, having recently opened in a big summer movie, “Collateral,” alongside Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.
Certainly, this is a good time to be Jada Pinkett Smith.
“Oh, it’s a great time to be Jada right now,” the 32-year-old actress says. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and I’m a very blessed girl.”
Most people would be inclined to agree. She and her husband, actor/rapper/force-of-nature Will Smith, are securely ensconced as one of Hollywood’s premier power couples. (Since Cruise and Nicole Kidman divorced, they may well be No. 1.)
They serve as executive producers of the UPN comedy series “All of Us,” which they created based on their family life. And Pinkett Smith is on the cover of this month’s Redbook magazine, looking resplendent in pale green.
Not bad for a Baltimore gal raised in a neighborhood she once characterized as “full of desperate, uneducated people who were brought down and oppressed by their lack of opportunity. I look back and go: ‘How did I make it out of there?’ “
When it comes to opportunities, Pinkett Smith has clearly made the most of hers, from a two-year stint on NBC’s “A Different World” (she’d unsuccessfully auditioned for Smith’s sitcom, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” but apparently made quite an impression on him) to her breakout movie role as an inner-city girl dreaming of better things in 1994’s “Jason’s Lyric.”
And yet (it’s a very small “and yet,” for Pinkett Smith sounds genuinely happy about the way things are going), she’s been part of the business long enough to know the pressures she’ll continue to face as an actress – particularly as a black actress, and one not willing to accept just any part that comes along.
“You have to ask Jodie Foster why she only does a role every five years,” Pinkett Smith says. “There are just no roles out there for women in general.”
True, she allows, Halle Berry‘s Oscar win for “Monster’s Ball” two years ago opened the door a crack wider for women of color in Hollywood. But nothing changes overnight.
“It’s a slow process,” she says. “We as women really need to step behind the scenes and do more writing, more producing, so that our voices are more authentic.”
Even with the “Collateral” role under her belt, Pinkett Smith’s schedule isn’t exactly crammed with choice parts.
Next year, she’ll be the voice of an animated hippopotamus named Gloria in DreamWorks’ “Madagascar.” But after that, her dance card is empty.
“I really haven’t read anything that I’m interested in,” she says, betraying not a hint of anxiety. “I see myself in a wonderful space, to have the luxury to do what I want to do and work when I feel like it.”
The birthday bunch
Actress Rose-Marie (“The Dick Van Dyke Show”) is 81. Actor Mike Connors is 79. Actress Pat Priest (“The Munsters”) is 68. Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 60. Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 58. Actress Tess Harper is 54. Actor Larry Mathews (“The Dick Van Dyke Show”) is 49. Actress Debi Mazar is 40. Actress Debra Messing is 36. Actor Anthony Anderson (“Barbershop”) is 34. Actor Ben Affleck is 32. Actress Natasha Henstridge is 30.