Jada Pinkett Smith says an incident that occurred on the set of the 1996 Eddie Murphy comedy The Nutty Professor opened her eyes about the potential side effects of her tendency toward drug and alcohol abuse.
In a new episode of Red Table Talk, Jada—joined by co-hosts Willow and Adrienne Banfield-Norris—reflected on the incident while describing her previous struggles with rationalizing her habit of binging on various substances.
“I’m a binger. … When it’s time to go, we gon’ go,” Jada said around the 4:40 mark in the new episode, released Wednesday. “I wasn’t the type of person that was drinking every day. I was a weekend party girl. It was like, yo, Thursday to Monday morning, I would go.”
Asked if this ever interfered with her work, Willow intercepted to note that her mother had already told her about one incident, prompting Jada to share the story with RTT viewers.
“That was an eye-opening incident for me, as well,” Jada said. “I had one incident on Nutty Professor. I passed out [in the] makeup trailer. I passed out. 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.”
Ultimately, Jada added, she pulled herself together and made it to the shoot.
Jada later discussed drinking red wine like “glasses of water” in her past, her present-day decision to avoid hard liquor, a separate incident involving vomiting at Debbie Allen’s home, and much more. For the full discussion, which also sees Willow opening up about her method of abstaining from weed for two months out of the year, watch the video above via Facebook Watch.
The Red Table Talk team previously discussed substance abuse and mental health during a discussion with Kid Cudi back in 2018. Revisit that here.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please reach out via the national helpline 1.800.662.HELP (4357) and/or visit the the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration site here.
