Jada Pinkett Smith Says 'No Nudity' Was ‘Always the Case for Me' When Acting in Sex Scenes

Mar. 15, 2025

Jada Pinkett Smith on May 30.Photo:Kevin Winter/Getty

Kevin Winter/Getty

Jada Pinkett Smithis getting candid about her approach to sex scenes on camera.

“No nudity,” she said onLena Waithe’sLemonada MediapodcastLegacy Talk. “That was always the case for me.”

Pinkett Smith, 53, has appeared in such racy movies asMagic Mike XXLandGirls Trip, but it was in the 1996 heist dramaSet It Offthat she navigated intimacy on screen and “separating the character from herself,” she said.

Waithe, 40, asked about shooting the F. Gary Gray-directed hit, costarringQueen Latifah,Vivica A. Foxand Kimberly Elise, before film sets had intimacy coordinators to choreograph sex scenes and keep actors safe. “It was a very different time,” responded Pinkett Smith, “but luckily enough, all of the men that [I] ever engaged with in that way were so respectful and took such good care of me. And even the directors did as much as they could to have as much privacy that they knew to have at that time.”

She recalled the scene in which her character, Lida “Stony” Newsome, used sex “to get money for my brother’s college,” as “being so difficult.” But Gray and his team, she added, were “making sure that only the necessary people were on the set.”

(Left-right:) Queen Latifah, Kimberly Elise, Vivica Fox and Jada Pinkett in ‘Set It Off’.New Line Cinema/Getty

New Line Cinema/Getty

For Waithe,Set It Off“had a great impact” both on herself and on her filmmaking career, she said. “There’s noQueen & SlimwithoutSet It Off,” she said referencing her 2019 heist movie. “I remember seeing it at the movie theater. And I always say this: When we walked out of that theater, we were different. That’s how powerful that is.”

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“It’s very easy to pigeonhole all of us,” she continued. “But I’ve always wanted to really express the expansiveness of the soul through film and television and eventually music. I always had this thing where I wanted to show the heart, the spirit, and the soul of Black womanhood.”

source: people.com