Jodie Turner Smith won one of the awards/superlatives in Glamour UK’s Women of the Year issue. She also got a cover, which you can see here. Jodie really is breaking out in a big way, although I think part of it is that she’s just saying yes to everything she’s offered because she needs the money. She’s going through a divorce, and while everything seems pleasant with Joshua Jackson, she wants to be able to support herself and buy a home in LA. Anyway, while Jodie has, in interviews past, been somewhat scattered, she comes across really well in this piece. Very mature, very centered. Some highlights:
Her daughter is in school in LA while Jodie works in London: “This is going to be the thing I look back on and think, ‘Wow, I survived that.’ This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
On money & freedom: “I don’t have a house,” she says, alluding to the fact she rents her house in LA. “When I have my house, then I’m going to achieve another level of success.” But it’s the privileges of success that she strives for more than anything. “Success grants freedom. It grants you the ability to choose differently. I want to be able to look after my family in perpetuity. I want to have enough passive income that I can work a little bit less. I want to not be in the middle of a divorce. That will be a success, too.”
The adjustment period after she filed for divorce: “It’s an adjustment period for anyone when they split up with someone, because you’re used to being with your child all the time. But nobody hands you a manual. Everyone’s trying to figure it out. Each parent has a different life, and especially if the reason why you’re splitting up is because you have different lives, it’s only further complicated by how you’re going to coparent.”
On Joshua’s reported relationship with Lupita Nyong’o: “He can do whatever he wants. Just be good to Juno and be good to Juno’s mum, because I’m going to be Juno’s mum forever. It’s really not for me to have an opinion on his journey.”
Have your own money no matter what: “Get your money right, because at the end of the day, it allows you the independence that you need to not be controlled. Independence is not free. It costs money, and money is power.”
On Amandla Stenberg, her costar in the now-canceled The Acolyte: “She put so much care and thought and love into that, and it’s disappointing to feel like your studio is not having your back in a very public-facing way,” she adds, alluding to how she felt Disney didn’t support Amandla at the time. “They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting f–king dog-piled on the internet with racism and bullsh-t. It’s just not fair to not say anything. It’s really unfair. It would just be nice if the people that have all the money” – whether that be Disney or any studio – “were showing their support and putting their feet down,” she proposes. “Say this is unacceptable: ‘You’re not a fan if you do this.’ Make a really big statement and just see if any money leaves. I bet you it won’t, because people of colour, and especially Black people, make up a very large percentage of buying power. They might find that it’s actually more lucrative for them, but everyone’s using ‘woke’ like it’s a dirty word.”
She’s hopeful that the tide will shift one day: “Opinions change. What’s in vogue changes. We’re gonna get there at some point, to that place where people stop having a stick up their arse about people of colour being a part of IPs that were created by white people. You know why? Because we’re never going to f–king stop participating.”
People of color get blamed when something is unsuccessful: “We don’t get to fail upwards like a lot of white me. I just feel that some people are allowed to grow and others have to be perfect, and if they’re not perfect – even when it’s great – people want to f–king tear it apart.”
What she says about Disney and Amandla – it’s very true, and Disney needs to stop playing footsie with racist Star Wars “fans.” Disney is making the same choice, over and over, and they’re screwing over actors of color who just want to work within these franchises without harassment and all of the online sh-t. I like how mature she’s been about her divorce – she hasn’t bad-mouthed Joshua at all, and it seems clear that they’re successfully coparenting right now. I hope that continues.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover courtesy of British Glamour.
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- V&A Summer Party 2024, Celebrating ‘Naomi: In Fashion’ at the Victoria & Albert Museum Featuring: Jodie Turner-Smith Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities arriving at Thom Browne show during PFW Haute Couture in Paris, France Featuring: Jodie Turner Smith Where: Paris, France When: 24 Jun 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
She is so gorgeous! I love what she said about not commenting on her ex’es journey. I haven’t seen the new Star Wars series yet. I was using my daughter’s log in but that’s not working anymore. I might just have to try one myself!
I like Jodie and can understand her need for financial security, but isn’t her daughter really little, I think only 4 or so? I really can’t imagine leaving a child that age in order to work in a different country, even if they’re with their other parent.
I love her. She is such a talented actress, and so beautiful. When she works, she seems to disappear in her roles.
Being a single parent is hard. I hope that she is able to earn what she wants, but I think of Viola Davis saying that she knows she and Meryl Streep have the same credentials and talent, but the money will never be fair because of racism.
She’s speaking 100 truth about all of it. I truly want the best for this woman
I will say one thing, she is very talented and it seemed that Joshua Jackson seemed to expect her to push her career behind his so he could do more. Now that he is doing a television show again, I wonder if that made him more “stable” as a parent so that’s why her daughter is with him for the most part in LA? I don’t get why her daughter can’t go to school in London.
Her daughter could probably go to school in London but likely her custody agreements with her daughter’s father don’t allow her to take the child out of the country for many weeks/months at a time. And also perhaps she thinks it’s not in her daughter’s best interests to uproot her to another country for weeks/months at a time. Co-parenting and supporting your child financially and building a future for them require some tough decisions sometimes and you can’t just do whatever you want with your child when you want to.