I’ve been thinking a lot about the combination of the pandemic and, this year, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Combined, that’s led to a lot of celebrity memoirs and side-projects, as celebrities look to branch out and fill their time. To be fair, in Jada Pinkett Smith’s case, I think the “Oscar Slap” was a big part of why she sat down and formed her memoir, Worthy. Jada has been on a promotional blitz and after the first big headlines, I’m not sure how much people are paying attention. Maybe I’m not the best judge of it – I have sympathy for Jada, I think she’s been treated unfairly by the media and by “fans,” and I also think she and Will encourage people to be all up in their business constantly, to disastrous results. Anyway, Jada recently chatted with InStyle, and there’s some new stuff here:

On Duane Davis being arrested for Tupac’s murder: “My biggest question is: Who called the hit? And so I know that someone’s been arrested, but I need that answered for me to really feel like justice in its completeness is being served. Who called the hit?… Hopefully we’ll get the answers that can bring us some closure and that’s what I’m really hoping for. We’ll see.”

Advice for her younger self: “What do you tell two young people in love? It’s so hard. We were big romantics in our own way. I think that all young people are big romantics because we don’t know a lot about love yet. Most of us come from environments where parents aren’t really showing the best examples of what love is all about. What I would tell those two is just understand there’s a lot to learn here. Understand that you are in the beginning, beginning, beginning stages of how to relate to one another, and that this relationship, this is the big one. This relationship is about you learning how to love. This relationship is about you learning how to love yourselves and learning how to love one another. That is not an easy thing. I know you’re in what we call the “honeymoon stage,” but in order to understand those other higher components of love, you’ll be tested greatly.

Whether Will Smith knew that she would be coming clean about their separation: “I’ll definitely say it’s benefited a lot. It’s been so interesting because you think you know somebody and, that’s the thing, you never stop learning about your partner. I think for Will, it gave him such intimate insight into everything in a way that I don’t know if he would’ve had without a book. Because you don’t go, “Hey, sit and tell me, go into detail about generational trauma between your great-grandmother, your grandmother, your mother, and you.”

Her experience with ayahuasca. “I think the idea that it’s a drug and that it’s something you use… it’s some woo-woo recreational situation. It’s a plant [with] medicinal properties for the mind and spirit, and it is not something you do recreationally. This is a really revered plant that has been used by so many Indigenous communities in Latin America for healing purposes. I feel really grateful that I was introduced to the tradition, I was introduced to the plant; it’s been very helpful to my life. I would say that anybody who desires to experience it, make sure that you’re with a veteran practitioner, someone who’s been working with the plant for at least 10 years.

[From InStyle]

Jada previously spoke about how her experience with ayahuasca helped her heal when she was suicidal, and it reminded me a lot of Prince Harry’s The Me You Can’t See, which featured stories about mental health professionals using psychedelics for mental-health medicinal purposes. People think that it’s all LSD and Timothy Leary, but there is a growing body of evidence that certain drugs and certain “trips” can create pathways to healing and mental-health breakthroughs. As for the Will Smith stuff… man, we’re going to get to the point where the whole country is rooting for Will and Jada to divorce, just so they can end this toxic cycle.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.