Jada Pinkett Smith is continuing her streak of candid honesty on social media.
On Saturday, Jan. 8, Pinkett Smith shared a two-minute long video on Instagram talking directly to the camera. Her message, though cryptic, discussed the concept of enemies and allies, sharing one grave warning about the people pretending to be comrades in your life until you really need them.
“I got an earful this morning man. I’ll tell you these COVID streets really got people tripping and you know people trip regardless, right? We all know that,” she said at the start of the clip. “But COVID is creating an intensity of trip-out that is new. And you know what’s funny is that it’s a lot of people out here here claiming to be lions until it’s time to do some lion things.”
The 50-year-old continued, sharing one of the lessons she’s learned over the course of her life.
“You never really know a person until you meet them on a battlefield,” she said. “That’s the one thing I’ve learned in these 50 years. And it could be in any position on the battlefield — an enemy, an ally. And let me tell you, I got mad respect for anybody who takes a position as an enemy, fights like one, I don’t have a problem with that. That’s life. I’m cool with that.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Pinkett Smith explained, “It’s the ones, it’s the allies... it’s the ones that are standing right next to you that look to you and nod to you as if they got your back and they’re on your side, and they nod to you like they’re ready to charge.”
“You look over and you nod back and you guys start charging towards the other side together and that joker takes out their sword and cuts your throat,” she continued. “Those are the tricky ones. You are doing yourself the greatest disservice by excusing that behavior, by letting it slide, and by ignoring what that represents. You’re doing yourself a big disservice and that person.”
The actor ended her message on an ominous note, adding, “I see fire in the horizon, so that means it’s going to be some smoke and I’m ready. I’m ready.”
“Make sure that those who claim to be allies are truuuuuue. Love,” she captioned the post.
It’s unclear who she was exactly referring to in the video, and comments on her Instagram posts have been limited.
Pinkett Smith is not known from shying away from deeply personal topics, including candid honesty about her relationship with her husband, Will Smith. At the end of December 2021, the “Matrix Resurrections” star shared a video on Instagram opening up about experiencing hair loss.
In the video, the actor show off her shaved head at various angles, telling the camera, “Now at this point, I can only laugh. I mean y’all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia and just all of a sudden, one day — look at this line right here — look at that.
Pinkett Smith touched her scalp to showcase a faint line across her scalp, explaining, “And so, it just showed up like that.”
“Now, this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide so I thought I’d share it so y’all not asking any questions,” Pinkett Smith added. “But you know, mama’s going to put some rhinestones in there and I’m just going to make me a little crown. That’s what mama’s going to do.”
In October 2021 during an episode of her Facebook Watch series "Red Table Talk," she was joined by Gwyneth Paltrow for a conversation about sex. With Paltrow, Pinkett Smith talked about some of the challenges that she and her husband have faced over the years in understanding what each other wanted in the bedroom with expecting to read each other’s minds. It took time for the couple to get there, but Pinkett Smith said that changing their approach was able to help.
“You tell me what you need; tell me what you want,” Pinkett Smith said. “I know that I have to be accountable to do the same. ... I really try. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s deeply healthy. And I think around sex, because it’s something that we don’t talk about, there’s so much fantasy around it.”