Will's wife steals the limelight

By Neil Smith
Entertainment reporter, BBC News

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith tells the BBC News website how she combines her career with being half of one of Hollywood's most feted couples.

Pinkett Smith's films include Set It Off and Scream 2

It's official. Will Smith, two-time Oscar nominee and star of Independence Day and Men In Black, is the most influential actor in Hollywood.

Well, that is what Newsweek magazine believes, having put the 38-year-old at the top of its annual celebrity power list.

It is often said, though, that behind every great man lies a strong woman - in Will Smith's case, his wife of 10 years Jada.

But while Will has rarely been off our screens in recent years, Pinkett Smith has been content to focus on her role as spouse and mother.

"I used to do movies back to back because I wanted to work," she tells the BBC News website.

"As I've gotten older, though, it's been more about quality than quantity.

Familiar guise

"It takes a lot to pull me away from other games I've got going on," the 36-year-old continues.

"You have to wait for those particular roles that sing to your soul, and they don't come around too often."

She also voiced Gloria the Hippo (left) in Madagascar

In recent years, those roles have included a futuristic freedom fighter in the Matrix sequels and an attorney targeted for execution in the 2004 thriller Collateral.

More bizarrely, Pinkett Smith also lent her voice to a hippopotamus in animated feature Madagascar.

This week, however, she can be found in a more familiar guise - playing a supportive wife in film drama Reign Over Me.

Not so loyal, though, as to turn a blind eye to the friendship between her husband, played by Don Cheadle, and a college contemporary played by Adam Sandler.

Feeling suffocated at home and undervalued at work, Cheadle's character is increasingly attracted to his former room-mate's bohemian lifestyle.

Terrorist attacks

The more time he spends in his company, however, the less secure his marriage becomes.

"Anyone who's in a relationship has had to make sacrifices to keep it afloat," Pinkett Smith explains.

In Reign Over Me she plays the wife of a dentist (Don Cheadle)

"But you can never forget about yourself, and that's what's happened to these two people.

"They've sacrificed everything for this union and forgot what it takes to keep the individual thriving."

The fact that Sandler's character is traumatised from losing his family in the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 was also intriguing.

"That was one of the most attractive elements for me - to look at what has happened to the people who were left behind on 9/11."

Will Smith made headlines last year by starring with eight-year-old son Jaden in biographical drama The Pursuit of Happyness.

'Interesting dynamic'

But while Pinkett Smith had a supporting role in her husband's 2001 movie Ali, the chances of another family affair are remote.

"I had a great time on Ali, but you always have to be careful with husband-and-wife duos," she says.

"People see enough of us in magazines. Who wants to see Will and Jada in a movie together?

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith married in 1997 and have two children

"You have to find an interesting dynamic that will be fun for the audience."

For the time being, though, Pinkett Smith is more likely to be found behind the camera or performing with her rock band Wicked Wisdom.

"That's where my heart is right now - being a screaming banshee on stage."

Formed in 2003, Wicked Wisdom played on Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest tour in 2005 and is currently working on a third album.

The actress-cum-singer describes its sound as "very free, very hard and very honest".

Reign Over Me is out in the UK on 20 April.