WeeklySA_AdminSELF-LOVE: No one can tell their own story better than themselves – as the Hollywood actress demonstrates in her book with disarming candour, while reclaiming her narrative…
By Jacob Mawela
“Aight, Pac . . . kiss me, then,” a girl, a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) in her early teens, dared a fellow pupil, a 15-year-old boy. Without hesitation, he obliged and immediately recoiled, exclaiming, “what the f – – k!”
Prior to the dare, the pair’s introduction was like: “Hi, I’m Tupac,” the boy, new at the BSA, boldly introduced himself to the girl upon approaching her. “I’m Jada, nice to meet you, Tupac,” she responded politely.
Thereafter, allow your imagination to wander to this sequel of intermittent exchanges – by way of intros – betwixt the self-same lass and a television sitcom star: “What’s up?” he enquired during one of their encounters, to which she retorted, “What’s up?” as she proceeded to avoid him.
Upon him proposing she play the role of his girlfriend in the aforementioned sitcom next time the two met, she stonewalled him again: “Thank you for flying all the way here, but I don’t want to do TV right now.”
During a phone call some other time after, she answered: “My mom doesn’t think I should be talking to you, since you are married, and she said you shouldn’t call me anymore.”
Respectfully leaving it at that for almost a year, out of the blue, the persistent thespian ventured phone call again, straightforwardly posing: “You seeing anybody?”
Responding in the negative, he took charge: “Good, you seeing me now.”
These scenarios interchangeably played out in her earlier life between two prominent men – Tupac Shakur and Willard Smith II (a.k.a. “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) – in the life of actress Jada Pinkett Smith. With the former, things would evolve only into a platonic relationship post the dare-to-smooch after the pair realised their connection wasn’t a romantic spark. It would be left to that for a long time until his untimely death, with converse happening with the later – a Hollywood leading man – when she eventually relented, culminating in marriage!
The progeny of drug addicted parents (her nurse mom, Adrienne, an on-off-on user and dad Robsol ultimately succumbing to an overdose) Pinkett Smith grew up in Baltimore, a city which in the 80s contained a dangerous section where mid-teenagers, boys and girls, were – in comparison to the rest of the United States – most likely to be murdered by their peers!
Raised by her beloved maternal grandmother, Marion Banfield, her childhood was cocooned from the harshness of the external environment through time spent in the elder’s fantasy-esque backyard garden – a wonderland of hide-and-seek spots amidst bountiful fruit, veggies and bunnies hopping about a strawberry patch – in between imbibing life’s initial lessons from gran.
Yet, once without granny’s magic bubble, she had to contend with the reality of school bullies and much later while navigating adolescence, entangling herself in a drug peddling hustle – a hazardous occupation that would edge her close to brushes with death. In one incident, a neighbourhood troublemaker barged into her spot, along with his gun-toting cohorts, brandished their weapons in her face before plundering all of her stock, takings and jewellery.
The irony of it all was that, as much as her parents’ habit adversely affected her upbringing, the young life of the future Hollywood actress became inextricably entrapped in a vice that eventually destroyed her parents.
Her passage through BSA to Hollywood was in – no minute bit – thanks to renown dancer-choreographer-singer-director-producer Debbie Allen (she of FAME-fame), who presented her with a breakthrough by creating a special role for her in the TV series, A Different World. It was during the spring of 1991 while a newbie seeking opportunities in Los Angeles – in the aftermath of having been rejected by the prestigious Juilliard School and having spent a year refining her craft in Winston-Salem at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Her dream-chasing mission in LA was bang on time because Pinkett (she was yet to be betrothed to Will Smith around this period) describes the period as “the Golden Years of Black Hollywood” – a timespan punctuated by a proliferation of untapped Black actors such as Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, Nia Long, Regina King, et cetera, streaming into the industry.
Allen’s involvement (she had to negotiate for her to diversify into the movie realm whilst still contracted to TV) led to Pinkett’s first mainstream film break when she got cast in the female lead role in Jason’s Lyric.
Mentioning Jason’s Lyric, the movie became a subject of a moment of blush when, whilst courting Smith – the actor played it for his grandmother in Pinkett’s presence. Featuring the actress in a nude sex scene – it left Will’s granny shaking her head and Jada mortified!
A chapter titled Loss Unmourned deals with the death of three figures close to the actress (who mentioned she admired Denzel Washington’s performance in Cry Freedom, so much that she named her black-&-white furred cat, Biko, after the iconic South African activist), namely, Tupac, N.W.A.’s Eazy-E (from full-blown AIDS) and Maxine (a Canadian makeover artist who had transformed her hairstyle on the set of Jason’s Lyric – committed suicide). Her acquaintanceship with the Straight Outta Compton hitmaker had commenced on an uneasy footing when she objected to misogyny in rap during a BET on-air talk, in which he participated. A poem her dad penned and once recited to her starts and concludes with the line: Nobody gets out of life alive.
A segment delving into Pinkett Smith’s experience of motherhood relates how she felt compelled to intervene when she saw her son, Jaden, in pain during training for his role in Karate Kid, when a trainer pushed him hard to execute splits!
At the tome’s tail end, a segment delves into her experience of the bizarre incident involving her then estranged husband Will, slapping comedian Chris Rock on his face, on the evening of the Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 27 2022.
Masterly authored by Pinkett Smith herself and published by 4th Estate, the 406-page paperback is available in South Africa through Jonathan Ball Publishers and retails at reputable bookstores countrywide.
