Jada Pinkett Smith’s ‘heart broke’ for ‘courageous’ Taraji P. Henson when she cried over pay disparity: ‘She is the breadwinner of her family. Her pressures are different than mine’

Jada Pinkett Smith can relate to her colleague Taraji P. Henson’s struggles with pay disparity to some extent, considering she doesn’t have to work due to her ex-husband Will Smith’s estimated $350 million fortune.

Last December, the Oscar nominee, 53, broke down in tears as she admitted she was only paid “a fraction” of what she believes she is worth, after breaking several glass ceilings for the next generation of African-American actresses.

‘You get tired. I hear people say, “You work hard.” I have to do it, math is not math. And when you start working hard, you know you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone,” Taraji told Gayle King on SiriusXM.

‘And if I can’t fight for him [women] Coming after me, what the fuck am I doing?

Last week, the Worth author, 52, told the NPR podcast It’s been a minute: ‘My heart broke for Taraji, and I was also happy, you know, for her courage, how brave she was to talk about it the way she did, you know? It’s difficult to talk about it. One of the things about Taraji is that she is the breadwinner of his family. His pressures would be different from mine.

Jada recalled how people in the industry reacted whenever she asked for more money or amenities on set: “People literally said, ‘Well, you don’t need it. You’re married to Will.” Yes. I’ve heard it several times.

Smith said the pay disparity is part of the reason she has only accepted supporting or guest-starring roles in two films and two television series since her lead roles in Girls Trip and Fox’s Gotham in 2017.

“That has a lot to do with it, and also wanting to be on the other side to help remedy that as a producer and then just wanting to bring more of my influence behind the scenes,” the Daytime Emmy-winning producer explained. .

‘It doesn’t mean I won’t get in front of the camera, but what it takes to get in front of the camera. It’s more about the type of roles I want to play or that interest me. And I’m thinking about directing. I’m starting to think about doing that.

On April 26, Goal cancelled Jada’s Facebook Watch talk show, Red Table Talk, which features her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris and daughter Willow Smith, 23.

Smith compared her 26-year marriage to the disgraced 55-year-old to “a tapestry,” having rekindled their on-off romance after she slapped Chris Rock onstage at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022 following their split secret in 2016.

2016 turned out to be the same year that the Queen Cleopatra producer and narrator embarked on an ‘entanglement’ with her son Jaden Smith’s 25-year-old friend, August Alsina, when he was 23 and she was 44.

‘We are together. But we’re together in a way that works for us and that’s really hard to explain,” Jada said.

‘We enjoy who we are. And I say: I tell him that all the time. I think: I don’t know if anyone will ever understand this, but it doesn’t matter. We have tried to separate several times. It’s a thing from God. He is above both of us.

Jada explained, “That has a lot to do with it, and also wanting to be on the other side to help remedy that as a producer and then just wanting to bring more of my influence behind the scenes.”