Jada Pinkett Smith calls her portrayal in All Eyez on Me ‘hurtful’

The biopic of Tupac Shakur, All Eyez on Me, opened on Friday. It hasn’t wowed critics, currently sitting at 24% on Rotten Tomatoes and one very vocal critic is Jada Pinkett Smith. The 45-year-old actress took to social media after watching the movie on Friday to criticize what she felt were some of the films glaring inaccuracies in the portrayal of her relationship with the late rapper. In the film Jada is played by Kat Graham, who is lovely. Jada, who met and befriended Tupac while they were both students at Maryland’s Baltimore School for the Arts, began her Twitter objection by stating:

She then took aim at some scenes in the film that she had an issue with and ended her rant with the assertion that “The reimagining of my relationship to Pac has been deeply hurtful.”

Back in a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, Jada discussed her relationship with Tupac, saying that they had no physical chemistry at all and that his stint in jail adversely affected their friendship. She said at the time, “Pac and I have always had very intense conversations…we had a very hardcore disagreement. I just wasn’t in agreement with the direction he was taking. I told him it was a destructive direction. He felt as though I had changed, I had gone Hollywood.”

Jada and the critics aren’t the only ones disappointed with the movie. Rapper 50 Cent provided his two cents on the flick on Instagram, posting, “Man I watched the 2 PAC film, that was some bulls–t. Catch that s–t on a fire stick trust me. LOL SMH TRASH.” Why he didn’t join Siskel and Ebert on At the Movies is beyond me.

The film’s producer, L.T. Hutton, responded to Jada’s criticism via a video posted on TMZ. In it, he said he was “disappointed, hurt” by Jada’s comments and insisted that, while the filmmakers had to take some liberties to tell the story, they remained “very responsible” about how everyone was portrayed on screen. He said he had no intention of hurting Jada and thought that she was good with the finished product, telling TMZ, “People that eat dinner with her all the time have seen the movie and they loved it and they told her about it. They told me that they explained to her and everything was great.”

I like some of Tupac’s music and I really liked him in Poetic Justice. Biopics can never tell the real story, there’s always some creative licensing that occurs. I haven’t seen the movie yet,so I don’t know if Jada is blowing this out of proportion or not. I definitely want to see it, as my guy, Kevin is in it. He plays a cop and you can see him at the 1:05 mark in this trailer. End cheesy plug.

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Photos: Getty Images, WENN.com

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22 Responses to “Jada Pinkett Smith calls her portrayal in All Eyez on Me ‘hurtful’”

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  1. I, pet goat, 2 says:

    Jada is so gorgeous it’s insane

    • Nancy says:

      Yep. Her bone structure is perfection. Fish has some cheekbones! Gorgeous. BTW, I’d feel the same way she does in this situation.

  2. Liv says:

    Thats the problem with a bunch of these cheapo biopics. Either get it right or leave it alone.

    • ORIGINAL T.C. says:

      Yeah biopics are very challenging to do. It can take a decade to really get an understanding of the person from books, documentaries, and interviews with the people who knew him/her. But that takes work and passion, some producers/directors want a quick buck to make a superficial MTV music video version.

  3. Christine says:

    So how was she portrayed and how is that different from the truth? The physical chemistry?

  4. AlmondJoy says:

    It’s also good to note that she complimented and thanked both Demetrius Shipp Jr. and Kay Graham for their portrayals and told them that she didn’t blame them at all.

    https://instagram.com/p/BVaESDAlJhn/
    If you swipe you’ll see all of the tweets.

    I haven’t seen it yet but it’s sad that so many people are unhappy with a movie portraying such an iconic person.. Pac is legendary. He deserved the best.

    • Pamela says:

      I loved that she made it clear that they did a good job with what they were given and that her issue wasn’t with them. Class Act.

  5. Esmom says:

    Is it me or is it weird that the producer’s only contact with Pinkett was through “people who eat dinner with her all the time?” You’d think he’d run the film by her in a more formal way if he was concerned that she’d be concerned with her portrayal.

  6. Jaded says:

    I’m interested to see if they gloss over some of the more violent parts of tupac, like he rape case or the shooting of the 6 year old, tupac was a complicated person who wrestled with himself and I hope they show all parts of him

    • Div says:

      I’ve also always been troubled over how people gloss over his sexual assault case. I see a lot of people write it off as “groping” (as if that isn’t terrible) and leave out the fact that he was in the room when a woman was gang raped. I have the same issue with Iggy Pop, Dr. Dre, and Jimmy Page…I think Pac’s problems tend to be ignored more because he was so charismatic and died so young.

      I read a good quote once about how one can appreciate the impact artists make without sanitizing heinous acts. A biopic or an in-depth article doesn’t need to bring up every wrong, but it does need to bring up especially heinous wrongs like Iggy stat raping a 13 year old girl or Dr. Dre beating two different women in an extremely violent manner.

      • Ankhel says:

        From what I understand, they portray Tupac as completely innocent in the movie, asleep and ignorant of events. Which… he was convicted. Almost better to leave it all out, if they’re going to rewrite history.

      • AmunetMa'at says:

        @Div. That’s because Tupac was innocent. A passerby fan may not be aware but there are countless interviews clearing it up. Basically, the FBI set up Tupac using a NY black kingpin by the name of Jimi Henchman. This kingpin was allowed to “rule” for many years. Several people have come forward that Henchman became “cool” with Tupac by supplying him with money, weed, and women when in town. One of the women was his accuser. After he died she admitted she lied and that it was a set up. She is recorded admitting the truth.

  7. BJ says:

    It’s a minor detail but I am bothered by the fact Tupac had a IPhone in the movie when he died in 1996.#authenticity #majorfail

  8. Carrie says:

    Hahaha … “Why he didn’t join Siskel and Ebert on At the Movies is beyond me.”

  9. PettyRiperton says:

    I don’t think she’s blowing it out of proportion. Imagine someone makes a movie or book or whatever about your dead friend and they exaggerate your relationship with your friend. They didn’t even get her input on that part of the film, they just wrote a fanfiction about their relationship.
    Will didn’t know Pac and her kids weren’t even born until after his death so they don’t know what Jada’s relationship with Pac was really like. So of course they wouldn’t see nothing wrong with the film.

  10. Hmmmsure says:

    I saw the film. It’s fine, it’s not a masterpiece by any means but critics are over reacting. And so is Jada. Their friendship was exactly that im the film, friendship. They may not have argued backstage in real life but films take some artistic license. And he did say those exact words “you’ve gone Hollywood” to her in the film. I don’t understand her disappointment.
    The rape case and shooting were addressed in depth. It was a solid film. 50 cents just mad no one’s making a film about him

  11. Lafawnda says:

    I see where she’s coming from but it was a biopic. Biopics rarely stay 100% true to exactly what happened. It was basically true to the facts in Jada’s part but added some things that made it more dramatic like the poem part. The poem was not in fact read to her but found later, after Pac had passed. Only two people know the truth of their relationship and one of them isn’t here anymore to discuss it.