good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight my conversation a actress jada pinkett smith. she joins me to discuss her new film "girls trip." and her life as one-half of a hollywood power couple. glad you joined us. our conversations with jada pinkett smith in just a moment. ♪

penned by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ please welcome jada pinkett smith back to this program. catch her this weekend on the big screen in the comedy "girls trip." the project was written by creator of "black-ish" and stars regina hall, tiffany haddish and queen latifah. before we start our conversation with miss pinkett smith, here's a clip now from "girls trip." >> ladies. i made something very special for us this weekend. >> oh. >> bam. >> looks like a bedazzler threw

up on that thing. >> what, this is very fashionable, up to date, it's very retro. >> how about we save it for the last night. >> of our lives? >> no. >> my little pony motorcycle club. >> okay. a lot of manhours into these jackets. >> that's not the kind of manhours we need you putting in. >> okay. >> you need to be bedazzling. >> i'm glad we bleeped that out. i think you got the point. >> yes. >> food to sgood to see you fir. >> good to see you. >> did you all have half as much fun making this as it appears on screen? >> yeah, that's why i think zs so fun on screen because we really had such a great time together off screen. i mean, i will say that these are -- well, you know latifah and i. that's been my buddy for years. >> 21 years? >> yes. yes. >> doesn't seem that long because it's on tv every day.

>> i know. >> it was on last night. >> i know. you know, i definitely think i have new friends in regina hall and tiffany haddish for sure. >> was just teasing you about that, how does it -- maybe you can't even answer this. i don't no if you watch yourself on television. if you're flipping tv any other night you can see yourself. your baby turned 19 years old today. >> he did. i look to will, it's real, we're in the second half. it is real. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> you know? and so, yeah, he just turned 19. >> it's outrageous. first of all, happy belated birthday. does it feel like at this point you, like, you got a body of work now. >> i do have a body of work. it's so interesting and i was thinking about that, how i've been blessed enough to do a lot of different things. >> yeah, yeah. >> you know, to play a lot of different characters. and so i look in my body of work and i go, hey, you didn't do too

bad. >> yeah, yeah. situate this in your body of work, how does this fit in? >> i love comedy. i just haven't had the opportunity to do as much comedy as i've wanted to do and it's so funny, a couple years ago before i did "bad moms" i was telling everybody, i really want to do more comedy, i really want to start exercising that aspect of my personality. i know the public sees me as a very serious person. people who are close to me, especially my husband, see me as very funny. that's what i'm saying -- >> i can see that. >> so funny because he's like -- i want people to know how funny you are. i just said, you know, i want to start doing more comedy. >> at least you went there. how would that work? could will direct you in a film? >> absolutely. absolutely. definitely. >> would you take his direction? >> i would, especially in a comedy. >> yeah, yeah. >> in a comedy, for sure,

because i trust his instinct and i know that he understands me comedically. >> yeah. >> that's what, to me, makes a great comedic director, like keenan, he just understood me comedically, like all of those performances, he crafted it because he knew me personally. you know what i mean? so i really feel like that's what i need as an actress. yeah. >> is that something -- now i'm getting in your business, your family business. is that something that will you think might do somewhere down the road? >> direct? >> yeah. >> oh, yes, absolutely. no doubt about it. >> yeah. >> yeah, for sure. he's doing a lot. he's doing a lot of studying, moving in that direction. yeah, that is something he has strong interest in doing. >> yeah. what is it about -- i follow you, what is it about your personality that makes you so -- so keen on comedy? >> oh, man, i think i'm just really silly. >> yeah. >> i'm really silly and i

just -- as i've gotten older, i just really love to laugh. you know? and, you know, living with someon like will for 23 years, you know, you just get into the habit of living that kind of lifestyle because you know, will's just a big kid. >> yeah. >> that's 24/7. >> that, he is. >> yeah. and so, you know, i -- and i really don't get to see it except through people that i know. you know what i mean? that they -- i don't know, it's just an aspect of myself. i can't really tell you what makes me funny or, you know, anything like that, but i do know that i'm a very, very silly person. >> how do you -- serious for a second, then we'll come back to the jokes. >> all right. >> how do you -- i really am fascinated by this. you have lived your lives in such a public way. you don't live your life -- the public follows you where you go. >> right. >> how do you hold on to the silly? how do you hold on to the

laughter? you know where i'm going with this. how do you enjoy the good times when there's so much other stuff around it? the rumors, the gossip? >> right. >> the hate. you run it. how do you hold on to the silly, how do you hold on to the laughter? how do you hold on to each other when all the other stuff is swirling around you? >> gratitude. >> yeah, yeah. >> you know, just being deeply thankful and just understanding that's nothing to take personally. at all. that comes with the territory. >> yeah. >> you know, it's just kind of how energy works. you know? and so as much love as you get -- it's like the matrix. as much as you get on one end, you're going to get the other on the other end. that's why a lot of spiritual scriptures say be neutral, be balanced, don't be too much this or too much that. >> i take your point. i believe, i said so many times, that gratitude is the gateway to greatness. gratitude is the gateway to greatness. i concur with it intellectually. it is so much easier said than

done. >> it is. >> to not take it personally. >> you know, when you go through it so much and when you know what's actually happening in your life, that it's actually the opposite of what people are saying or think about you, you know, when, you know, i've been criticized greatly about how i've raised my children, but when i see the outcome of my children and how the beautiful beings that they are and how happy they are, you know, you start to understand these different rules of the universe. you know what i'm saying? in all honesty, it's just part of it. actually, it has nothing to do with you and you learn, too, that you cannot look at your image through the eyes of others. >> yeah. yeah. >> you know, because most of the time it's a very cracked lens. >> yeah. >> and so as long as my world, the people who are closest to me, as long as we are sharing in love and that my connection to

the highest above is on point, i'm really good. >> two thoughts just hit me as you were talking. one is that if i had a dime for every time somebody stops me in this country or around the world, airport, hotel, wherever, they say, that interview that you and will did one day, was, like, the best interview. i know it's been downloaded, like, i saw one day, like, millions of views. >> right. >> of this conversation that will and i had in this very chair one day, he was talking about the outlook being his favorite book. i listen to you say certain things and you all read this book. >> we share -- >> reading lists? >> we share reading lists. i think one of the things -- this might seem really corny but one of the things i love about my partnership with will is we are constantly pushing each other to grow. >> yeah. >> you know? and i have learned to value that greatly in our relationship and we've come to understand that that -- that is the biggest

aspect of our togetherness is how we grow together. you know, we always say, i don't know if anybody else was here that i would grow the way that i grow with you. the way you force me to look at things and the way i have to expand and the capacity in which i have to grow to in order to have all the things that you're talking about. one of the great things about being put in a position like that, in order to survive and to be happy in that survival is you do have to grow spiritually. you have to. if you don't, it will kill you, literally. so as a family, you know, a lot of times we look at the negative aspects of being in this industry and all that comes with it. you know, but it is those very things that help break certain ideas that keep us small. you know? and i'm very grateful for that. >> right. >> yeah. >> this is getting good now. what's fascinating to me about

this is you sieem so well adjusted now. >> yes. >> to the life that you life that you live and to your point, it's all a part of the process. and yet i can't think of anything, so there are two questions, two thoughts. i can't think of anything, though, that would hurt me -- personal personally, i know there's nothing in the world that hurts my mama more than seeing me hurt. >> oh, yeah. >> i've been through -- don't get me preaching now. i'll start crying here. >> right. >> i'm a grown man. >> right. >> my mama will break down in tears if she even thinks that her baby is in pain. >> that's right. >> my point is, there seems to be nothing more potentially painful for a mother than to have people talking about her baby. >> oh, yes. >> and that happens to you a lot. >> it happens a lot. >> as you said a moment ago. >> yes. >> the first question is how do you process people talking about your babies? and secondly, how do your babies process being talked about in a

world where kids get it as much as adults do and it just seems t so unfair? >> i know, doesn't it? but i have to say, their generation, i have to say that they haven't been as affected as i have at times. you know, i think it has a lot to do with social media. >> i think -- >> you know what i mean? it's -- you kind of get numb to it. whereas for us in our generation, it's something new. and i agree with you, there was a point in time where it was devastating. you know? and once again, i had to really -- i had to realize that the way in which i was raising my children was scary to people. it was scary. because it's so different. you know? and i knew that i had to just let people wait and kind of see the outcome. >> what -- to your mind, what were they scared of? >> just the amount of freedom that i've allowed my kids to have. you know, when willow shaved all her head off, that was like --

shaved all her hair off, it was like oh my god, what are you doing over there? you know? and not understanding that in allowing a young girl to have ownership over her hair, over her body, how you're teaching her how to be, how a powerful, young woman, you know what i mean? hair grows back. but as women, how we're connected to our hair, how we're connected to our looks, you know, it's just scary, you know? and so people tend to attack things that they're afraid of. and i had to really have more compassion for that and to understand, i don't necessarily need people to understand what i'm doing, that i have to trust myself. and that in the long run, people would either get it or they wouldn't. but at the end of the day, what was most important was the happiness of my children. >> yeah. >> that was what was most important. >> how do you balance -- this is

a question for every parent, but particularly, i think, jada, when you live in a world where your kids have so much privilege. the challenges i think are probably a bit greater. >> wrayep. >> how do you balance the freedom you spoke of a moment ago which i think is important for kids to have? >> especially kids of color. >> exactly. couldn't agree more. >> yes. >> how do you balance that freedom with responsibility, when your kids live in a world where they have so much privilege? >> here's the thing. i'm one who believes you only get a certain amount of freedom with the amount of responsibility you can have with that freedom because i do believe that, you know, a lot of people when they talk about freedom, they don't talk about the responsibility that comes with freedom. they talk about freedom of speech, for instance. >> exactly. >> okay. so for me, the -- in my particular household, i would give out freedom in the understanding of the responsibilities that came with those freedoms. you know what i mean?

and so that's how will and i -- >> every kid can't handle the same. >> every kid can't handle the same thing. there are certain freedoms he got earlier than my other two kids because he had a certain maturity at a certain age that they didn't, you know? and so -- and i don't really look at age as like, okay, you're 9, so now you get to do this. i look at what you have the capacity to handle. you know, because i believe that everybody grows at different levels. even as adults. you know? we -- it's all about capacity. just be able to have the eyes and the sensitivity to see what somebody can have. and so i'm always will to give my kids what they can have, and even if i can see they can have it and they might not believe they can have it, pushing them just a little, you know, because at the end of the day, my goal is for my children to be empowered in being exactly who they are.

the best gift we can ever give our children is giving them themselves. that is the best gift we can offer as parents. not giving them what we think -- what we believe they should be, not what society thinks they should be, but who they believe they are individually. that is all we are reaching for as adults. my goal is as a child, when you have these two parents right here who have the strength to hold you up, that you can try anything you want in this world, in this household. by the time you leave, you can have it all. and i'm not just talking about material things. i'm talking about you can have whatever this world brings, whether it's sickness, whether it's poverty, whatever it is, and knowing that there is a power higher than us all that is carrying you through all of it. and that has been my goal.

>> i don't just hear it, i feel it. as a parent, what you're attempting to do. let me ask a different question, which is what you -- maybe even you and will together -- together or individually, what is it that you are hoping to share with your kids artistically? >> oh. >> through your artistic choices, through the expression of your art and practice and expression of your artistic craft. what is it you hope your kids get? there's nothing else, we think about the smith kids, they're artistic, got their own ideas about the way they do things. what is it you hope you have given to your kids as a lesson artistically? >> artistically, i think the biggest message that will and i both have, probably you can't help but convey it just because of who we are as artists and individuals is use your art to change the world.

just use your art to change the world. and whatever help, use your art to shape the world in which how you see it, to create the world in which you want. you know? and because art is, in my opinion, and in will's opinion, the most beautiful way to, you know, create the world that you see. you know? so even with the idea of gender fluidity, or willow's pro-woman, like, you know -- >> you got it all under one roof. >> we got it all under -- >> under one roof. >> yeah, they all -- or their both interest in, you know, saving the planet, you know, and so that's the only thing that we've -- that we've tried to convey is that to use your gift to shape the world in the way in which you believe it should be.

>> when you're married to a man who at one point is regarded as the biggest box office star in the world. >> right. >> then he goes through a period where he's no longer -- at least for a period of time -- >> right. >> wasn't the number one box star of the world. all those people writing all those nice things about him now start saying he's lost it. >> yeah, isn't that deep? >> big will ain't got it no more. >> isn't that deep? >> you make billions of dollars. now you lost it, you ain't got it no more. you're searching for a hit. if i'm getting too personal, tell me. there are so many lessons. i love will. i love you, of course. i love to learn. >> right. >> one of the best ways to learn is by watching people who overcome. >> yes. >> who novembavigate their way through this especially in a business as treacherous as hollywood. how do you encourage your partner? what to you say to the person you love? that's actually a larger

question here. when you're going through something, where everybody else is declaring one thing -- >> right. >> -- but you have to live with this person every day and you're not buying what you're reading. >> right. >> you're not buying what you're hearing. how do you -- console is the wrong word. how do you communicate? >> here's the thing. here's the beauty of family. >> right. >> your family always reminds me that you're so much more than all of that. period. >> period. yeah, yeah. period. yeah. >> that is the beauty of family. that all of that, that comes and it goes. guess what doesn't? this circle right here, we love you regardless. and guess what, that ain't you, anyway. this right here, that's you. and that's what matters. this right here, these people around here think you're a great man. that's what matters. >> a great man.

i told you already. in my office, there sits a photo that i treasure. i felt like they just for that one day, thahat one moment, the allowed me in the smith family. i have a picture, whenever people walk in. i have pictures of friends, my family, my own. there's something about this photo that always draws people's eye and attention. it's a picture of will smith holding jada when he was a baby and will's father was visiting from niphiladelphia. will came to visit me on the show i guess and his dad was with him. there are three generations of smiths in this photo. >> wow. >> i'm standing on the side kind of, you know -- >> right. hey. >> exactly. photo bombing. >> right. >> but it is -- there's something an that photo, man, and the look on all three of their faces and three generations of black men and to

know where it comes from, the backstory. it's a powerful photo. >> it is a powerful photo. >> i just thought about that, you mentioned family is what matters. >> i think about -- >> his father's past. >> his father's past. when i think about those three individuals, when i think about where his father came from, what he had been through, think about will, you know, being raised by his father, what that was and then how will came through and then giving birth to jayden and just the generations of, like, the build, you know what i mean? of, like, each of them being able to springboard their son to the next. isn't that beautiful? will sr. did it for will. you know, and will did it for jayden. and that's how it should. just keep springboarding the next generation. isn't that beautiful? >> that's the way it's supposed to be. >> that's the way it's supposed to be. >> go back to family now. >> okay. >> this family's entertaining. but it's also empowering. >> yeah. >> and it's empowering without being didactic, without being

prea preachy. yet it's empowering anyway. i won't give the ending away. very empowering. >> it has a beautiful message. >> talk to me about that part, you got the chance to do something that wasn't just entertaining but powerful. >> that was one of the ideas of the film that really attracted me was you had these four women who didn't have perfect lives at all who had to come together to not only heal their relationship, but to remind each other of who they are. you know, so that they can have the courage to really become who they are. you know? and i think a lot of times for us as women, it's easy to forget, you know, we're in an interesting stage of the fem feminine in where we have a lot of choices now, you know what i mean? we're really, you know, it's kind of like this idea of, like, what is it to be a woman? what is it to be a powerful woman? what is it to be a married woman, a mother?

you know, all these things. we're trying to fall into all these boxes of identity where this movie is basically saying, by all means necessary, just have -- whatever that means, you know what i'm saying? and, you know, for some women, it is about having a family and a career. for some women, it's just about having a career. for some women, it's about being a stay at home mom. whatever it is, just be that thing for yourself. you know? and how we have to dissolve all the fears that come with it. all the ideas of what people are telling us we should be versus just be. >> yep. i think this has got money written all over it. it's got box office written all over it. >> i hope so. i hope so. >> i mean, it's impossible to see it and to not laugh. >> yeah. >> it's impossible to see it and not learn. >> right. >> it's impossible to see it and not love. >> yeah. >> it's impossible to see it and

not listen. you know? it all comes -- >> i'm pretty proud of it, to be honest with -- yes. >> love you. >> love you. >> give my best to will. >> i will. >> good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> that's our show for tonight. thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith. ♪ >> for more information on today's show, visit tavissmiley@pbs.org. hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time with a conversation with legendary filmmaker, that's next time. we'll see you then. ♪

♪ penned by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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