Jada Pinkett Smith is married to the most popular movie star in the world (according to box office returns) and has a successful career in her own right. She says in an interview with the LA Times that she never intended to become a Hollywood star, however. The interview is meant as a promotion for her new TNT show HawthoRNe, produced by and starring Jada as a head nurse in a Richmond, VA hospital. The show is groundbreaking in its own right, as is one of only a few prime-time dramas to star a black woman. However, Jada doesn’t like to think that she is “starring” in it – she prefers to think of it as an ensemble cast.

“This is scary for me. I’ve never liked being at the center,” continued the Baltimore native, whose first big industry break came on the ’90s sitcom “A Different World.” “I know this is being marketed as the Jada show, but it really is an ensemble. I’ve never looked to be at the center because I feel stuff like that traps you.”

Appearing in the series, which premieres Tuesday, also shows her willingness to tame her wilder side, an exploratory offbeat nature that has led her to pursue more unconventional projects such as fronting the heavy metal band Wicked Wisdom, as well as writing and directing a provocative film, “The Human Contract.” (It is being released this month on DVD.)

Working on a TV show as a sympathetic, warm nurse is at the extreme end of the spectrum from “The Human Contract.” But it marks a step toward her wish to reach a wider audience. That drive has brought a new dynamic into the Smith household, according to her husband.

“Jada has always been more of a wanderer,” said Will Smith. “She is where she’s going. I’m never where I’m going — once I get there, I’m already bored and ready to go somewhere else. She’s now opening up her ideas and goals to scrutiny, and that can be a very new and painful place to be. She is learning how to trust her team, to collaborate.”

Her new role has reignited spirited discussions with her husband about her preference to blend in. “My husband has been baffled by this forever,” she laughed. “I remember him asking me, ‘Jada, what do you want? I don’t understand why you don’t want to be the biggest actress in the world.’ But I never came to Hollywood for that. I really, really don’t like boxes. I’ve only wanted to do what I want to do.”

[from LA Times]

Jada and Will are not only different in their career goals, but also in their parenting. Jada jokes that during the three-month filming for “HawthoRNe,” Will had to be Mr. Mom to their three kids. That meant eating chocolate for breakfast and staying up as late as the kids wanted. But once she’s home, she says, the old rules are back in place. Considering the system that she helped set up for her school in LA, I’m guessing she doesn’t let her kids eat chocolate in the mornings.

Before taking on the titles of producer and star of the TNT drama “HawthoRNe,” which debuts on Tuesday, Jada sat down with her famous family to make sure they’d be OK without her.

“I said, ‘Listen, there was a show I’d love to do and it will be three months that you might not see Mommy a lot,’” she told CNN. “And they’re looking at me like, ‘Really? What does that mean?’”

But she said more daddy time with Will means a break from mom’s rules for Willow, 8, and Jaden, 11.

“So they get to eat chocolate for breakfast and go to bed whenever they feel like it for those three months while I’m working,” Jada said. “So, it works out, and they know that the rest of the year, I’m off.”

But Jada’s not too far from her family – the show is filming in Inglewood, Calif., close enough to the Smith home for Will to make a cameo on her show.

“He’s an extra in one of the episodes, so just see if you can catch him,” she said. “He’s walking by, doing a drive-by, and we could hardly afford that. It was a very costly walk-by.”

[from Access Hollywood]

As for Jada’s new show, Hawthorne, the reviews are in and they are bad. A reviewer in the Washington Post said that it is “a show in need of emergency care.” According to the critics, everyone plays exactly the character you think they would: the male nurse is insecure about his gender; the patients are either annoying are far too sweet; the doctors are way too high up on their horses to know what’s going on; and Jada’s character’s mother-in-law is too mean. There’s also Hawthorne’s rebellious teenage daughter to consider. Of course, the Washington Post reviewer was also comparing it to another new nurse show, Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco, which is getting rave reviews.

It doesn’t sound like Jada’s show is much longer for the airwaves. In the meantime, she has her new movie The Human Contract to promote, as well as practice with her heavy metal band, Wicked Wisdom.

Jada, Will, Jayden and Willow are shown on 12/9/08 at the premiere of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Credit: PRPhotos