Jada Pinkett Smith Says Pay Disparity “Has a Lot to Do” With Why She Acts Less, Recalls Being Told “You Don’t Need It. You’re Married to Will.”

Jada Pinkett Smith applauded Taraji P. Henson for speaking out about her experience with the pay disparity in Hollywood while appearing on NPR’s It’s Been a Minute. 

Pinkett Smith was asked as a Black Hollywood veteran if she felt Henson’s words rang true and how inequality has shaped her career.

“Absolutely,” Pinkett Smith said. “My heart broke for Taraji, and I was also happy [to see] how courageous she was to speak about it in the way that she did.” 

“One of the things with Taraji is that she is the breadwinner of her family. Her pressures would be different than mine. I have to put that out front, because if it’s time to walk away, that’s not always the solution,” explained the actress. “Because what people don’t understand with us as Black entertainers, we carry a lot of people with us.” 

When the host brought up how Pinkett Smith being married to a “hugely successful Hollywood megastar” could make being paid appropriately more difficult, she said, “Yes, people would literally say, ‘Well, you don’t need it. You’re married to Will [Smith].’” 

When asked if part of the reason why she doesn’t act as much as she used to is because of this type of treatment, Pinkett Smith said, “That has a lot to do with it and also wanting to get on the other side to help remedy that as a producer.” 

She explained why she prefers working behind the camera, noting, “It’s not to say that I won’t get in front of the camera, but what it takes for me to get in front of the camera, it’s more. Just in regards to the kind of roles that I want to play or that interest me. And I’m thinking about directing.”

In December, Henson got candid about the struggles she’s faced throughout her career in a Hollywood Reporter cover story for The Color Purple alongside Danielle Brooks, Fantasia Barrino and the film’s producer Oprah Winfrey. “I’ve been getting paid and I’ve been fighting tooth and nail every project to get that same freaking [fee] quote,” she said with tears in her eyes. “And it’s a slap in the face when people go, ‘Oh girl, you work all the time. You always working.’ Well, goddammit, I have to. It’s not because I wish I could do two movies a year and that’s that. I have to work because the math ain’t mathing. And I have bills.”

She expressed a similar sentiment days later while appearing on Gayle King’s Sirius XM radio show. When asked by King if she’s thought of quitting acting, the actress got emotional and said while choking back tears, “I’m just tired of working so hard, being gracious about what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost. I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired.”