Twitter/Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Pinkett (now Smith) and Tupac Shakur met in high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland and endured a deep albeit tempestuous friendship all the way up to Pac’s death in 1996.
“It was the first day and he came over to me and introduced himself,” Pinkett Smith recalled in an interview. “And in high school, Pac was a little funny looking. Definitely from looking at him, wasn’t necessarily the type of cat that I would even like, deal with.”
She continued, “But as soon as he approached me, he was like a magnet. Once you paid attention to him he kind of sucked you in. And we hit it off from that moment on… I don’t think either one of us thought we would have made it in the way that we did, but we knew we were gonna do something.”
Pinkett has been adamant that their relationship never turned romantic, save for one kiss in which she described as “the most disgusting kiss for us both.” She described Pac as a “brother” with transcendent charisma unmatched by anyone she’d ever met.
Their relationship grew tumultuous toward the end of Pac’s life, as the rapper accused his friend of changing and going Hollywood, becoming a different person than the girl that inspired poems by Shakur that were posthumously published in The Rose that Grew from Concrete.
Jada resisted her relationship with Tupac after the newly released biopic All Eyez on Me hit theaters. The film has been slapped with several poor reviews, being called “uniformly uninspired” and “a muddled vision of Tupac” but that’s not that axe Pinkett has to grind.
Pinkett took issue with several scenes that inaccurately depict her relationship with the late rapper, and aired her grievances on Twitter.
Forgive me… my relationship to Pac is too precious to me for the scenes in All Eyez On Me to stand as truth.
— Jada Pinkett Smith (@jadapsmith) June 16, 2017
Pac never read me that poem. I didn't know that poem existed until it was printed in his book.
— Jada Pinkett Smith (@jadapsmith) June 16, 2017
Pac never said goodbye to me before leaving for LA. He had to leave abruptly and it wasn't to pursue his career.
— Jada Pinkett Smith (@jadapsmith) June 16, 2017
I've never been to any of Pac's shows by his request. We never had an argument backstage.
— Jada Pinkett Smith (@jadapsmith) June 16, 2017
The reimagining of my relationship to Pac has been deeply hurtful.
— Jada Pinkett Smith (@jadapsmith) June 16, 2017
Pinkett makes note not to fault Demetrius Shipp and Kat Graham, who play Pac and Jada, thanking them for bringing so much “heart and spirit” to their roles. The screenwriter, on the other hand, ain’t so lucky.
If any of you bros have seen the movie, let me know how it was in the comments. I trust you strangers over these smug ass critics.
[h/t TMZ]