Jada Pinkett: Jada on the Job

"Acting's hard, nothing about it is easy," Jada Pinkett assures me. C'mon, what's so hard about it?

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"What do you mean, what's so hard about it?" she shoots back. "It's hard work. You're working, 18 tour days, you've got to stay fresh, you've got to stay charming and bring a character across. People think this crap is easy, and well," she laughs, "I'll tell you a few things about easy."

Maybe Pinkett has a point here. The parts she's taken haven't exactly been "babe in a minidress." She's been acting in films nearly back-to-back, from Menace II Society (as a tough unwed mom) to Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (as a tough, troubled youth). I guess it can be tough, although it seems to be paying off: Pinkett has been described repeatedly by critics as "one of Holly- wood's most valuable new assets" and she'll be the star of her next film, Saving Sheba.

There are perks to her newfound fame, Pinkett admit but when you get down to it. it's still work. "I don't have time to notice if anyone's kissing my ass, because people are kicking me in the ass so much you know?" she says. "I don't complain about that, though, because I'm the type who if you don't kick me in the ass, you got half-ass. I'm lazy like that."

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Michael Atkinson