The rising queen of film & fashion
THE BRITISH-BORN ACTRESS WAS PURSUING A CAREER IN CORPORATE BANKING – UNTIL A CHANCE ENCOUNTER KICKED OFF HER AMAZING HOLLYWOOD ASCENT
Like many first-time action stars, Jodie Turner-Smith learned a lot about her physical abilities while filming her role as a Navy SEAL opposite Michael B Jordan in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, available this month on Amazon Prime Video. But beyond any preproduction boot camps or intricately choreographed combat sequences, TurnerSmith’s preparation for the role came with an additional challenge: at the time, she was pregnant and in her second trimester.
“There were moments I thought I was in over my head,” says the 34-year-old actress, who, along with her husband, actor Joshua Jackson, 42, welcomed daughter Janie last April. “I’m excited to eventually tell her, ‘I was pregnant with you when I did that!’”
Turner-Smith never imagined herself in such physically demanding roles – or any other movie roles, for that matter. Born in Peterborough, England, to Jamaican parents who divorced when she was a child, Turner-Smith moved with her mother, brother and sister to Gaithersburg, Maryland, at 10 years old. “Like many immigrant families, you have this idea of the American dream, having a secure job that you can depend on,” she says. “I spent a lot of time trying to become the me that would be the most successful.”
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008, Turner-Smith pursued a career in corporate banking until, as she recalls, “a series of experiences made me look at my life and say, ‘I don’t know what it is that I want to do, but I know it’s not this.’” One such life-changing event was meeting superstar singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams backstage at a N.E.R.D. concert. Williams encouraged Turner-Smith to move to Los Angeles and introduced her to director Hype Williams, who cast her in the 2009 music video for The-Dream’s song ‘Walkin’ On The Moon’.
Following a string of videos for artists including Noah Cyrus and Zayn Malik, Turner-Smith focused her energy on print modelling and auditions, landing work in episodes of HBO’s True Blood and the sci-fi series Nightflyers. Her big break came in 2019, in the fugitive crimedrama Queen & Slim, opposite Daniel Kaluuya. “It was important to me that Queen was driven by her own story,” says Turner-Smith of the titular role.
As for balancing her career with the responsibilities of parenthood, TurnerSmith – who is also the face of Gucci’s Bloom Profumo di Fiori campaign – says she and Jackson support and motivate one another. Jackson has posted several gushing tributes to his wife on social media, while TurnerSmith says her happy home life means she is “a bit more measured about what I participate in, because the most valuable asset we have is time”.
Including time to celebrate all the high points of the past two years. “I’m telling you,” Turner-Smith admits with a laugh, “there’s a lot of high-fiving in our house!”