- I'm so interested in people.
- Mmm hmm.
- You can call that nosy or you can call it very curious,
you pick.
(laughing)
- We'll go with curious, we'll go with curious.
(lighthearted rhythmic music)
(fun exciting music)
- Oh my goodness, look who is at the table.
(fun rhythmic music)
- You're not breaking me today, Jada!
- I've broken you enough.
(yelling)
We have three generations of women talking about
the world around us.
- I feel like a show like Red Table Talk
honestly couldn't have come at a better time because
you're tackling topics that are finally being talked about
and explored in a more in depth way.
You're talking about mental health, addiction,
emotional abuse, physical abuse.
And so with that said, where do you think a show
like Red Table Talk's place is within
those larger conversations?
- I think people are just ready to have a very
real conversation.
I think people in their own lives are wanting a safe place
where they can put the mask down and just go, okay.
Can I just have a very real conversation of
what it's been like to be in an abusive relationship?
What it's been like to feel insecure?
What it's been like to have loss?
What I felt like having to hear about,
or watch my mother be abused?
And so I think that just creating safe space where
we can be vulnerable, and specifically black women.
I don't think that we have a lot of open forums
where we feel safe enough to be vulnerable.
And even for me, that's part of my work on
Red Table Talk for me, specifically as Jada,
is being okay and embracing that more vulnerable
side of myself.
Because usually in the public,
I have given more of that harder shell Jada.
- Baltimore Jada.
- The Baltimore, you know,
just trying to shake that Baltimore.
(laughing)
It's taking me many, many years to get to that place.
And to also show the beauty of vulnerability
and so that's been a huge piece of messaging
and a huge healing area for me personally.
I would say for me, I had an emotional breakdown
that definitely, I feel like, effected my mental stability.
- Right.
- How has this show kind of, I guess,
opened you up professionally?
Because I think that you, I don't know if you knew all
along that you had this gift for conversations and
interviewing, and all of this stuff.
So how has this made you kind of reflect on your own career
and think like, wait a minute,
I'm not just an actor or singer,
I can actually do this?
Because you're really pushing the boundaries of what
you can do in a really impactful way.
- I really enjoy talking to people about life.
In all honesty, these are conversations I have driving
in the car with friends.
These are conversations I have around my kitchen table.
I just love having real conversations just about
what is going on with people and
what people are thinking about.
It did take a little training.
I must say, my activism in human trafficking helped me
with the interviewing part, having to sit down with
so many survivors of trafficking and
being sensitive to know how far to push,
and seeing and energetically feeling when enough's enough.
I would have to say that those women really showed me
how to have sensitive conversations and
how to interview because I had to sit down and
interview a lot of female survivors, a lot.
So I would say that my training really did come from there.
- In addition to Red Table Talk,
you are also have a whole slew of films that
you're working on and producing.
One in particular caught my eye and it's Hala.
- [Jada] Hala.
- Hala, and I feel like, I would love to hear a little bit
about this story itself because it sounds like a really,
really unique and beautiful story.
And even what's going on behind the scenes
with it is even better.
- What I love about it, about this particular movie,
is that women are leading the charge in front
of the camera and behind the camera.
Every department that we had on this movie was a woman.
- There was an inclusion writer attached to it.
- Yeah, we had an inclusion writer attached
to this particular film.
With all the activism I've been doing, as far as diversity
in Hollywood and just trying to walk that walk
through my projects.
So, like Regina, my girl, Regina King,
said on the Golden Globes (mumbles).
- I am making a vow and it's going to be tough
to make sure that everything that I produce
that is 50% women and I just challenge any one out there,
I challenge you to challenge yourselves and
stand with us in solidarity.
- She had that call of action, and I was like,
I got you, Regina, I got you!
- You're funny to have mentioned it.
- Glad you mentioned that, I got you.
- I was really good at keeping my troubles hidden.
- Even from your friends?
- Even from my friends.
- So where do you see Red Table Talk balancing out,
balancing out with the rest of your career,
because I think that, I don't know if you were surprised
by the success of it or you thought,
I knew all along it was gonna be something.
- Yeah, no.
- Because I think it's, obviously you have the films
that you're producing,
the films that you're acting in as well.
So where do you see this in everything
that you have going on right now?
- I really did see this as a passion project and
I did not expect this kind of response and
this kind of success with Red Table Talk.
But it's the one that I'm most passionate about.
It's like the forefront, where I was looking at this
to be more of like a hobby,
it's kind of taken the forefront of like, no,
this is the thing I wanna do.
And then everything else will probably fall into a hobby.
(laughing)
Movies will become more like a hobby.
- I love it.
Most people are like, oh, I'm just gonna take up tennis.
You're like, no, I want to sit down at a red table
with my family and have really deep conversations
that you're having.
- Yes, that was--
- Only Jada Pinkett Smith, all right.
- It was more like a passion project and
it was more like, oh, do it when you can,
do it when you want.
But yeah, I've been given the opportunity to do it
as much as I want and we really enjoy it.
It's what I enjoy most.
So in this part of my life,
it's like, just do what you love.
(fun rhythmic music)