Jurnee Smollett has been working on set since she was six years old, appearing on sitcoms like Full House and Martin. The actress made her film debut in the Francis Ford Coppola-directed dramedy Jack, before breaking out in Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou at age 11. She knows what it's like to tell stories about coming of age, while quite literally coming of age herself. As Smollett says, "I have been doing this my entire life."
In the years since, she has starred in Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters (2007), Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (2020), and Joseph Kosinski's Spiderhead (2022), as well as television series such as Underground and Lovecraft Country. Her newest role in the film We Grown Now felt like something of a full-circle moment.
From writer-director Minhal Baig, the '90s-set drama centers on two young boys growing up in Chicago's Cabrini-Green public housing project. Smollett plays Dolores, a single mother who lovingly encourages her son's sense of wonder, despite the hardships of their life. Working with the first-time actors, Smollett said, "I think they helped me reconnect with the magic of what we're all doing and what we were making."
"I know what it was like to be 10 years old on a set and being like a sponge learning from the adults in my life. Now, reality's flipped on me," she muses. "It was really lovely to see the magic of filmmaking through their eyes. They came on set so in awe of everything in every way, and I was able to reconnect with the magic of cinema. Sometimes we just take for granted what we do. You're so focused on the mission that you can easily lose sense of, oh wow, we're all just creating magic! But staying in touch with that inner child is so essential for all of us."
We Grown Now, as with 2022's Lou, also marks Smollett's own growth as an artist: In addition to starring, she served as an executive producer on both. "I'm trying to be part of the change and usher forward stories and storytellers that help expand the gaze," she says. She has aspirations of directing her own projects, too. "I just love storytelling and I love filmmaking. It's probably the reason why I'm acting, honestly."
Here, Smollett shares with A.frame her five all-time favorite films. "I'm a Libra, so I'm a little indecisive with these things," she quips. "These are the films that inspire me, and the performances that I watch over and over and over to fine-tune and inspire me."
Written and Directed by: John Patrick Shanley
John Patrick Shanley is one of the greatest storytellers of all time. The performances he captured from the cast are unbelievable. Viola Davis is on-screen for, like, eight minutes, and it's a masterclass. The cast is insane — Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams. I've read the play, seen the play, and then watched the film, and it's so cool to see how [Shanley] adapted it for the screen. As a playwright, I would imagine that's pretty tough. But I love that he's just got such skill to be able to go back and forth and expand the world. His approach is very, "Show us, don't tell us."
Directed by: Spike Lee | Written by: Arnold Perl and Spike Lee
Malcolm X was one of the first films I saw in theaters. I was very young, but that's my mom! She's always been really intentional about educating us on our history. The performance, the directing — it's just epic filmmaking. It's intense, it's educational, the performance that Denzel Washington gave is unbelievable. Malcolm X is obviously one of the most beautiful marriages of actor and director. Denzel and Spike are one of the most epic collaborative dynamic duos of all time.
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance | Written by: Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis and Cami Delavigne
Blue Valentine breaks my heart every single time I watch it. I think anyone who's ever been in a relationship where you are in love and yet you don't have the tools to succeed in love knows those two characters inside and out. Those are epic, nuanced performances. I'm such a fan of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams' work in general. I mean, when he's playing ukulele and singing to her? Come on!
Written and Directed by: Céline Sciamma
Each frame in that film is like a portrait. It's a living, breathing painting, and the performances are stunning. Céline Sciamma is everything.
Directed by: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper and Eleanor Coppola
This is the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now. I didn't realize the hell and back they all went through in making it. And the footage that Mrs. Coppola captured is just priceless — to see Francis Ford Coppola wrestle with his demons in that way. I think I'm interested in stories like that. I read a lot of autobiographies of actors and stuff, because it just helps you feel less alone in your neurosis. We all have that sensor in our head that creates such doubt when you're trying to pursue your art, and to see the doubt and the obstacles he went through and still triumphed is incredible.
I also love that they had their kids on set. It was cool to see Sophia Coppola in Hearts of Darkness. She's such a kid and she's on set, and I thought that's amazing that they were able to grow up and witness their dad and their mom pursuing what they love. That's what I'm doing with my son, Hunter. My hope is that he can have the same experience, where he can see mom pursue what she loves.
