In celebration of Mother’s Day, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith decided to sit down with her mother Adrienne Banfield-Jones and her daughter Willow to have an honest and candid conversation about life, love, family and relationships. In a special video called ‘Red Table Talks’ the three generations sit together around a circular red table and begin a tradition that hopefully with catch on with mothers and daughters worldwide where they talk about things that were always left unsaid.
Within the first few minutes, Jada’s mother Adrienne cuts to the chase and tells Willow that Jada’s childhood wasn’t as good as hers because Adrienne was on drugs well into Jada’s teens. What was interesting was that she considered herself a ‘bad mother’ and she felt that deep down Jada resented her for that. She also expressed that she felt disconnected to Jada and her family a little and was very surprised when Jada revealed that she wasn’t holding on to any resentment and didn’t think of her as a bad mother. Jada also seemed extremely surprised when Willow admitted that if she could change anything, it would be that she wouldn’t be famous because she can’t be a regular girl.
The table talk was very open and candid and by the end of the video, you get a sense that Jada’s mother was finally able to let go of the guilt that she was holding on to for all of those years. Jada, meanwhile, had a lot of great messages to mother’s around the world throughout the clip.
Watch below and read a few excerpts:
Adrienne Speaking to Willow About Being a Bad Mother to Jada
I had Mommy when I was very young, and then I got addicted to drugs after Mommy was born. It was a very difficult time for us, growing up with her, and Jada did not have the kind of life that you have now. I was not a good mother in my eyes. I know that your mom believes that all experiences good and bad help make you the person that you are today, but I just feel like during those times the bad times outweighed the good. I was on drugs until your mom was like 17 or 18 years old, that’s a long time, all of her formative years. When I got into recovery I had been clean for 22 years and I went into therapy and I remember trying to get your mom to come with me and do some therapy sessions and she just was not really having it. I felt like there was some things that needed to be said, that she just needed to get off her chest. She’s always said she doesn’t have any resentments, and I just have a hard time with that because I have been so caught up in my own guilt.
Jada On Resentment
I don’t look at the experience we had together as bad. I don’t, and I know that over the years you have constantly challenged me on that.
I turn all of that into power. I use those things as motivation. The experience that I had with you because you were so young, we did a lot of growing up together. I had a lot of freedoms. So I learned the power of freedom, but I also learned that you have to have healthy boundaries. The freedoms that you gave me ‘Do what you want with your hair, dress how you want, you wanna dance, you wanna sing, I’m gonna take you down to the Baltimore School of the Arts, You never once told me that I couldn’t do something. When people ask me ‘What did your mother say when you told her that you wanted to be an actress and go to Hollywood?’ I said ‘Here are the two choices I gave my mother, I remember this phone call, I said ‘Ma, I’m not staying here at North Carolina at the School for the Arts taking acting class. You got two choices, I can go to law school, or I can go to California and see how all this is gonna end up’, and you know what you told me, ‘Well LA hear we come’.
We can’t be perfect on all levels, but you were intuitive enough to know who I was. Now that’s one of the best things that you can give a child, and not to get in the way of the being of a person.
Jada On Being a Wife & Mother
Being a wife and a mother is probably one of the most extraordinary experiences and the most fulfilling experiences of my life. At the same time it has been very difficult to balance being able to do the things that I wanna do, and having the freedoms that I wanna have.
We’ve been taught that you have to completely sacrifice everything. I think that the re-messaging that we as mothers have and gravitate to is that you have to take care of yourself in order to have the alignment and the power to take care of others at the capacity that we do.
The more happy I am and the more fulfilled I am, it works for the family, and when I’m not, it doesn’t. I have to be responsible for my own happiness. In order to be responsible for my own happiness I’ve got to create new messaging. I look at women, I look at mothers, and I really feel like there’s a lot of unhappiness going on, and its because of the messaging we’ve gotten. ..you have a right to be happy, and your happiness is what fuels you from the inside.
On What Willow Would Change About Her Life
If I had to change one thing about my life, it would probably be, I wouldn’t be famous. When you’re famous it’s so hard. Let’s say if a regular girl is going to the book store, it’s ten times harder to go everywhere. But some people are like, ‘Oh, it’s so easy,’ and I’m like, ‘As fast as you can get there, it’s going to take me ten more minutes to get there.’ Because it’s like, have to call security, its this, that.
It’s not like I can’t reverse being famous. Sometimes I don’t wanna be, but sometimes I do because if there’s a problem in the world, then more people listen to me.
Adrienne On Being Disconnected From Her Family
A lot of times I feel disconnected from you guys. Once and for all, let it go. You gave me permission to release all the guilt. I insisted on carrying that burden. Never feeling worthy enough to be able to let it go.
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Yeah I wouldn't know her from Eve either... just another girl with a dyed, nearly bald hairdo...
will ALWAYS think of 
like a "ACT OF GOD"! N another realm. 
Well even though I'm pissed that Will is remaking a classic black movie and ultimately ruining it.....he shouldn't be sexually harassed. What happened to public decency?
