Veteran actress Jada Pinkett Smith has been making headlines over the last several weeks as various parts of her once-private life have slowly been coming to light. Seemingly in keeping up the spirit of providing more insight into her personal life, the “Set It Off” star opened up about her past struggles with substance abuse and how her addiction got so bad, she once passed out while on the set of a major film.
During the latest episode of the popular Facebook series, “Red Table Talk,” featuring Jada, daughter Willow Smith, and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, the 49-year-old got very frank about her experience filming the 1996 comedy “The Nutty Professor” starring comedian Eddie Murphy. “I had one incident. That was an eye-opening incident for me as well. I had one incident on ‘Nutty Professor.’ I passed out,” the actress began, revealing that during those times, she used to be a heavy drinker. “I went to work high, and it was a bad batch of ecstasy. And I passed out, and I told everybody that I must have had old medication in a vitamin bottle.” The actress admitted that she saw no harm as long as she wasn’t doing cocaine or heroin. That incident proved to be a pivotal moment in her life, with, as she revealed, she quit her drug habit cold turkey. “But I tell you what I did, though. Got my ass together and got on that set. That was the last time,” she added.
Diving deeper into the issue that has plagued so many, especially those in the entertainment industry, Smith said her “cocktails” of choice — which consisted of alcohol, cannabis, and ecstasy — posed as her most significant feat. “I was a brown liquor drinker — rum — and also vodka. I was a hard liquor drinker. Like, I could drink almost anybody under the table,” Smith added. “I was drinking hard in high school too, and when I got out here, I was doing cocktails. So, ecstasy, alcohol, weed.” Willow interjected with “Whoa, what a combination.”
She continued, “Your threshold becomes so high that what it takes for you to get to the place you need to get to — it’ll take me two bottles to get to — okay if I do ecstasy, weed and alcohol at the same time, I’m gonna get there faster, and I can keep the high going because then I can just keep drinking ’cause I know ecstasy’s gonna last me about three, four, five hours, the weed, you know, that’s just gonna keep me just smooth, and then the alcohol’s gonna keep it going.”
The mother of two understands the severity of her addiction as she revealed why she’s so tough on her children, including Jaden Smith and Trey Smith, whom her husband, Will Smith, welcomed in his first marriage. Smith’s mother also had her own dealings with substance abuse, she revealed on the show.
Nowadays, the “Menace II Society” star says she’d indulged in a “glass of wine here and there, but cannot touch vodka, rum.” But, she added, “Rum’s another one. No dark liquor.”
