Jada Pinkett Smith explains the 'black girl magic' of Girls Trip
Jada Pinkett Smith stars alongside Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish in the hit movie Girls Trip, a comedy that features four black women in the lead roles - an unusual proposition in Hollywood that has proved a winning one.
Opening here on Aug 10, it revolves around four lifelong friends who travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival, during which sisterhoods are rekindled, wild sides are rediscovered and there's enough dancing, drinking, brawling and romancing to make the Big Easy blush.
Here, 45-year-old American actress Pinkett Smith talks about Girls Trip's sleeper success at the US box office - it made US$72 million (S$97.9 million) on a US$19 million budget - and the film's catchphrase "black girl magic".
How does it feel having the top-performing live-action comedy at the box office this year?
It feels good for a lot of different reasons, and I mean more so than for the box office.
I just love what the Girls Trip movement has been about.
It's just that you can see just the power of women and once we throw power to each other... Even though this is a movie starring four African-American women, it's not a black movie in the sense that it's not only for black women or black people.
What does "black girl magic" mean to you?
It's really being able to be accepted and embraced in all of your blackness, because you know, especially in this industry, black women are constantly told, "Do not be black".
That's whether (it's) in how we behave, how we speak, how we look, what our hair looks like, and the fact that this is a movie that's starring black women, and it's a movie that's told through our lens.
And so through our culture, other people can come and embrace our culture, and embrace black culture within their culture, within their lens, and enjoy it. That's "black girl magic". - REUTERS
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