Jada Pinkett Smith didn’t break a sweat responding to Janet Hubert’s video dis while the Gotham star strolled through an airport on Wednesday, January 20.
Pinkett Smith kept things civil when Entertainment Tonight asked her how she felt about the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum’s fiery remarks slamming her and her husband, Will Smith, for boycotting the Oscars. Other prominent Hollywood names, including revered actor Spike Lee, are also opting not to attend in protest of the lack of diversity in this year’s nominees.
“Considering that Alabama had its highest recruitment for the KKK for Martin Luther King’s birthday, I hope that we as African Americans can find a way to get along and step together,” the 44-year-old actress said. “Here’s the deal: This whole Oscars controversy isn’t really about the Oscars. Really, it’s my plea to ask our community, people of color, to take back our power so that we can use it in all sectors of our community, and right now, specifically with African American people, we have some very serious issues that we as a people have to move together on.”
Pinkett Smith added that instead of combatting Hubert’s warring words with harsh words of her own, she just wants to rise together as a community.
“I’m hoping that we can find ways to step together in this, instead of finding ways to fight each other,” she concluded. “I got love for everybody.”
On Monday, January 18, Hubert, who played Smith’s Aunt Vivian on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for three years in the early ’90s, vented about Pinkett Smith’s request for other black actors to take a similar stand against the Academy.
“Here’s the other thing, for you to ask other actors to jeopardize their careers … You know damn well, you don’t do that,” Hubert said in the video. “They don’t care! I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people [who are doing this] … That is not the way life works, baby. It’s very suspect to me.”
