Jodie Turner-Smith Covers ELLE Magazine January 2021 Issue

Source: RUTH OSSAI / Elle Magazine

Turner-Smith, who stars in the Tom Clancy flick alongside Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell boasted of toughing out her scenes while pregnant:

“The men think they’re hard-core,” the actress says, cracking up, “but they could never do what they do while also making a baby. They just couldn’t.”

She added that the real strength isn’t necessarily found in the fight scenes though.

“True strength is not found in force and brutality, but in vulnerability,” she says. “I would love to do more action, and action where I’m allowed to be a woman,” she adds, citing Sigourney Weaver’s classic turn in Alien. “I know we don’t maybe class that as specifically an action film, but I mean, what she’s doing in that? F***ing brilliant.”

Source: RUTH OSSAI / Elle Magazine

Turner-Smith also spoke about signing on to play Tudor queen Anne Boleyn in an upcoming series:

Source: RUTH OSSAI / Elle Magazine

“We can only infer who she was, because she left no paper trail that would hint at her imagination. She’s endlessly fascinating for that reason,” she says. With her portrayal, Turner-Smith wanted to “tell the story of the woman who sits at the center of the myth, and make that story an accessible one—one that’s not entirely about class, but about humanity. Because whether a woman is a queen or a housekeeper, she is not exempt from any of the challenges and trials that women face in navigating their bodies, love, or the patriarchy,” she says. “There’s an opportunity to tell a really human story and for it to feel that much more accessible because a Black woman is playing her.”

Kudos to ELLE on this one. The words and images are incredibly beautiful and powerful. The images were styled by Ola Ebiti and Turner-Smith was photographed by Ruth Ossai. Which photo is your favorite?

Read the full interview by Véronique Hyland HERE