For all its stars, Hollywood is still a place of underappreciated and untapped talent, with actors waiting for a perfect storm to form overhead: the right role, at the right time, catching the right audience. And then, boom, they get long-overdue attention. It’s a common story, and now it applies to Jada Pinkett Smith, whom I’ve loved for a very long time.
Now 44, she is that cliche of a small woman: fun-sized (5ft!) and a human dynamo. She twinkles. I first saw her on A Different World, playing a college kid unafraid to hustle, and while she stayed on my radar through the 90s, it was in the unfairly overlooked Set It Off (1996) that she seared herself into my mind. As Stoney, a desperate and sort-of-reluctant bank robber, she was vulnerable but tough. Her face will probably always look youthful but, with the right material, it’s a perfect canvas for conveying real world emotions: she did this in Hawthorne, a not-very-good TV show I watched only for her.
There were some quiet years – marriage (to Will Smith), motherhood (to Jaden and Willow, both actor-musicians) – then someone remembered and cast her in Gotham (as a mobster) and, even more pleasingly, Magic Mike XXL. Here, she’s spectacular: all sexy swagger and funny presence, dressed in crisply tailored trouser suits.
Most recently, she’s turned her attention to calling out the diversity whitewash at the Oscars. That took guts – even millionaires are not immune to Hollywood’s wrath – and, self-serving though it might have been, I appreciate it. I hope it marks a renaissance of sorts. Goodness knows, Hollywood could use her.
