Jodie Turner-Smith takes the lead in Anne Boleyn, a new historical miniseries offering a more modern take on the life of King Henry VIII's infamous second wife. Following her acclaimed performances in the topical road movie Queen & Slim and TV's The Last Ship, Nightflyers, and Jett, it’s another exciting role for the fast-rising star. With the three-parter premiering today (December 9) on AMC+, here are some things you might not know about Turner-Smith.1. She grew up in Peterborough, two hours north of London, then moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland with her family when she was 10.
"I’ve always been 'other' in all the spaces that I've been in. Even when I first moved to America, just the idea that I was a dark-skinned black girl from England with an accent," Turner-Smith told Interview magazine. "It’s one thing to be a Black girl, but it’s another to be a dark Black girl. I was chastised for that. I was chastised for the way I spoke. And because of the personality that I have, I immediately began to adapt into being the most accessible form of Jodie for other people."
2. She was supremely conscientious from a young age.
"I really wasn’t that person who was going to parties or clubbing when I was a teenager,” Turner-Smith told NME. “School was so important to me, as was all the stuff that I did around it like playing sport and trying to be a really good candidate for university. That was my life!”
3. She studied finance at the University of Pittsburgh, then worked in corporate banking after graduating.
However, Turner-Smith soon realized that banking wasn't her true calling. “I looked around and saw that other people liked what they were doing," she told NME earlier this year. "I wanted what they had. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I decided I would rather try to figure that out than live to regret it and end up resenting everyone in my life because there was this idea that I should have pursued something else. My mantra became: ‘I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.'"
4. Meeting Pharrell Williams after an N.E.R.D. concert in L.A. was a watershed moment for her.
The singer-producer told Turner-Smith, super-encouragingly, that she belonged in front of the camera. "He definitely played a part in me deciding to take a chance on myself, and see what it could be like if I lived my life in front of the camera," she recalled in a WWD interview.
5. Her first acting job was in a Kanye West music video.
Turner-Smith starred in the video for "Walkin' on the Moon," West's 2009 collaboration with producer The-Dream. She recalled the rather surreal story of how she was cast during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show.6. She also appears in the music video for a Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit.
Namely, "Pillowtalk" by former One Direction member Zayn Malik.7. She married her teenage crush.
Asked by W magazine who her first crush was, Turner-Smith replied: "It was Pacey from Dawson’s Creek! I was a very young teenager." She and Joshua Jackson – the actor who played Pacey – wed in 2019 and welcomed their daughter the following year.
8. It was Turner-Smith who proposed to Jackson.
When asked when he knew the couple would marry during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jackson replied: "I knew the moment she asked me. She asked me on New Year's Eve. We were in Nicaragua, it was very beautiful, incredibly romantic, we were walking down the beach, and she asked me to marry her."
9. As of 2019, she was feeling unsure about whether to apply for U.S. citizenship.
"I've been in this country now for so long, so it’s like I should, but I’m not certain that I want to live here and raise my family," Turner-Smith told Variety. "It's a very complicated relationship that I have with America. I love it so much. And I also see the places where it’s flawed."
10. She anticipated a backlash for being a Black woman cast as Anne Boleyn.
"If anything, recent times have shown us that we’re not beyond that in any way. So I was not shocked or surprised," Turner-Smith told The Observer earlier this year. "I will say that over the last four years there has been a wave of extreme rightwing ideas and that individuals are very vocal on social media in their limited ways of thinking. I wasn’t surprised by people being angry about it. Also, when someone cares about a character and is a huge fan of someone in history, they’re going to feel passionately and invested in seeing it the way they envisioned it in their own minds. That’s no fault of their own, I guess."
Are you excited to watch Jodie Turner-Smith in Anne Boleyn?