Jurnee Smollett joins our Zoom call fresh off a workout with her trainer. It feels fitting, considering she’ll spend part of the next 45 minutes detailing the intense exercise regimen she went through in preparation to play Smoke’s Michelle Calderon — a brilliant, badass detective struggling to juggle a serial arsonist investigation, childhood trauma, and an environment that’s not always particularly kind to Black women like herself.
One gets the sense when speaking to Smollett that she shares quite a few qualities with Michelle Calderon. There’s a refreshing directness to the way she speaks and a level of confidence and insight about her Smoke character that suggests she’s thought deeply about every aspect of her past and personality. There’s also undeniable ambition and discipline — the kind that makes it clear she’s in this business not for the fame or glamor, but the fulfillment of the work itself and the desire to be truly great at her craft.
How Smollett’s Childhood With Hollywood Icons Forged a Lifelong Creative Code
Smollett’s level of ambition should come as no surprise. After all, she’s been working with the greats since she was a child. Her first film role, 1996’s Jack, was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starred the late, great Robin Williams, whom Smollett credits with teaching her how to improvise. “That was my schooling,” she says of being on set with everyone from Williams to Angela Bassett as a kid. “That was my education. I honestly just kept observing them and picking up different tools that they used and picking their brain.”
Those tools helped her craft her own process, which includes writing a biography for every character, no matter how big or small — a technique she learned from Denzel Washington on The Great Debaters. “I learned so much from him,” Smollett notes. “It was like taking a master class.”
Later, she reveals how that particular film is special to her for reasons that span beyond Washington as well. While on a trip to South Africa as part of a program to help destigmatize HIV and AIDS, Smollett recalls a woman slipping her a note that said the film had inspired her to join the debate team and eventually become a lawyer. “I’ve had several moments where it’s like, ‘Oh, someone saw something, and it affected them in a way that ignited something in them,’ and I think, ‘That’s one of the blessings of art.’”
It quickly becomes apparent that philanthropy and creating real change with her work is of deep importance to Smollett — something Samuel L. Jackson, with whom she starred alongside in Eve’s Bayou, served as inspiration for. As for Jackson and his wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson? “Those are my godparents,” Smollett says.. “They are truly some of the greatest actors of all time, both of them, but they are also generous human beings in real life, and they lead and use their platform to service others. Watching the way they use their art for a greater good has always been a north star for me.”
Smollett Has Been Preparing for ‘Smoke’ All Her Life
Besides collaborating with legends from an early age, Smollett’s childhood fascination with fire makes her role in Smoke feel almost poetic. “It’s always been this hypnotic force to me since I was a kid,” she admits. “We lived in this house in Diamond Bar when I was young, and it had a fireplace, and I was the one responsible for building the fires because it used real wood. Figuring out how to get the temperature right, the levels right… it’s a force beyond us, and as human beings, we have this illusion that we can control it. We use it to heat our food, to heat our bodies in our homes, and yet, we see throughout the world, there are moments where Mother Nature goes, ‘Oh no, you do not have control over it. Humble thyself.’ Fire, in our show, is a motif for that very force that we’re drawn to that wants to destroy us.”
That complex juxtaposition is evident in Smollett’s character, Michelle, a trait that immediately drew her to the role. That instantaneous pull was cemented further after meeting Smoke creator Dennis Lehane. “It struck me just how well he and I gelled right off the bat and how we seemed to be on the same wavelength when it came to Michelle,” Smollett says. “That’s always a good sign because you want to know that you both want to tell the same story, and you both have the same destination in mind. He writes Michelle with so many contradictions. I just love that. It’s so thrilling to play characters who have contradictions because that’s just the truth — everyone does.”
One of those key contradictions is Michelle’s tough exterior versus her more tender interior, both of which are results of a childhood trauma she suffered when her mother locked her in a motel closet before lighting the room on fire. Smollett says this harrowing experience shapes how her Smoke character views the world, as well as presents herself to it. “That mother wound that she has affects how she is in every relationship,” Smollett states. “It’s one of the reasons she’s driven and ambitious in her work, and her identity is consumed by what she produces. She has created this persona of this professional person who will get the job done and will fight for justice…that’s actually not all she is, but it’s all she feels safe being. Human beings, intimacy, being vulnerable terrifies her.”
She has mastered compartmentalization, and she is a soldier at heart.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Michelle’s relationship with Steven Burke (Rafe Spall), her sometimes lover who also happens to be her married boss. Sound messy? It is — and exactly where that whole theme of self-destruction comes in. Smollett met with a therapist to help understand Michelle’s psychology in this dynamic, wherein they discussed attachment theory. “Michelle is very much so the avoidant, and Burke is the anxious one in the relationship. Although he has the power in the workplace, she has the power in the bed, and the second he leaves his wife for her — which a lot of women would want, right? — instead of her going, ‘I’m leaning into you,’ she breaks up with him, because he’s now someone she could actually be with, and that terrifies her.”
Like most things in the Apple TV+ crime drama, Michelle and Steven’s relationship is difficult to cleanly define; Smollett notes that Michelle wants to make him proud and does have true love for him, but there’s also a much darker edge to their dynamic. After all, Steven is the reason Michelle’s been assigned to work with Taron Egerton’s Dave Gudsen on the arson case, which makes her feel something that sits somewhere between resentment and hatred. “He is the person who sent her there — who punished her — and yet, she’s also inspired and fueled to prove to him that he can’t keep her down. It’s a very toxic relationship — a very toxic dance that they’ve always been in, of both of them being tethered to each other in a way.”
But just because Michelle keeps her guard up and refuses to make connections doesn’t mean she doesn’t crave them deep down. “She desires friendship — she desires closeness — but that desire makes her hate herself and everyone around her,” Smollett explains. The yearning to connect is particularly strong when it comes to other women. “She operates in such a male-dominated space — and has for a while, coming from the Marines and now being a detective. I think she does hunger for that feminine energy that she lacked growing up. She lacked having that with her mother, and I think part of her mask is to put on and lean into that masculine energy — the guard, the ambition, the drive. She’s got this mask up, she’s got this armor on, and she’s been able to succeed in life so far with the mask. She has mastered compartmentalization, and she is a soldier at heart.”
The one person Michelle does allow herself to let her walls down around? Her young niece, Sophie (Sierra Godswill), who doubles as a safe space for Michelle and someone she fiercely wants to shield from the evils of the world. “Protecting her niece is an opportunity to compensate for the fact that she couldn’t protect herself,” Smollett observes. “She sees herself in her niece so much and wants so much for someone to protect her niece in the way that she should have been protected.”
Smollett Is the Flicker Before the Flame
As a creator, Lehane is masterful at slowly peeling back the layers of characters and situations to expose the fact that everything is not quite as it initially seems. One of the biggest instances of this happens at the end of Smoke’s second episode, “Your Happy Makes Me Sad,” where it’s revealed that Dave is one of the very arsonists he’s pretending to try to catch and that his novel details many of his crimes. Smollett confirms that she was aware of the shocker before meeting with Lehane about the role. “I was initially sent the first three scripts…I read it, honestly, like a fan,” she gushes. “It was such a page-turner for me. I wanted to know what else happened.”
The idea of Smoke’s characters holding big secrets and telling even bigger lies was a compelling one for Smollett — and the project’s main appeal. Each scene feels like an elaborate game of chess or poker, with each interaction strategic and full of bluffs. “What I love so much about Dennis’s writing is that he reveals so much about people not through what they say but what choices they make. Because true character is ultimately revealed when you are forced to make a choice under pressure — not in what someone says.”
I’m curious if Smollett can pinpoint the exact moment Michelle first starts suspecting Dave. There’s her conversation with Burke, of course, when the prospect of a former firefighter being responsible for the crimes is brought up, but while this seems to solidify things in Michelle’s mind, I felt I could detect some wariness in her from the get-go.
“I think it’s actually off-camera,” Smollett agrees. “Someone who is always the first one on a crime scene, someone who always can find the incendiary device, someone who always has the answers and yet can’t catch the guy strikes her as odd from the beginning. I think the detective in her, from the beginning, has gone, ‘Why hasn’t [Dave] been able to catch this guy?’”
Michelle has the tricky task of investigating Dave while working alongside him, never giving any indication that she’s onto the chilling truth. “When Michelle first meets Dave, she’s very much feeding into his male ego and doesn’t let on how much she knows about the cases. It comes out in little kernels that she’s read all the cases, which throws him and makes him feel a little vulnerable.” While Michelle is trying to keep innocent people safe, Smollett notes that there’s a more selfish motivation at play as well. “She needs to use him. She needs to catch these two arsonists and get the hell out of there so she can go back to Burke and go, ‘What now, man? You can’t keep me down. You underestimated me, but watch me.’”
While Michelle has the difficult task of subtly playing Dave on Smoke, Smollett may have an even more challenging juggling act. She has to act in a way that would realistically convince Dave that Michelle is clueless about him while keying the audience into some of the inherent nervousness and adrenaline that would come with believing he’s guilty. How, I wonder, did Smollett juggle all of these layers?
“You have to go back to the technique,” Smollett says. “You gotta track the character’s emotional arc. What does she know at this point, and where is she coming from, and where is she going? There are so many different shifts that happen in Michelle and Dave’s relationship, so it’s really about tracking that and staying with the levels. We’re not at 90 yet — don’t play 90. We’re not at 100% yet — don’t play that.”
I notice she used a similar analogy when talking about maintaining the levels in the fireplace as a child — and brings the metaphor up once again when discussing the challenges of tackling Smoke’s subtler moments. “Some of the quieter scenes, you have to go in and have the courage to allow your heart to break on camera,” Smollett confesses, adding that she often “plays with the temperature” of how emotional she allows herself to go — since vulnerability is something Michelle is always fighting against. Perhaps there is a strange parallel between performing and keeping a fire burning after all.
20 Pounds of Muscle, Lots of Firepower, and No Shortcuts for Smollett
The role of Michelle is an emotionally intense one, but Smollett reveals that the experience of filming Smoke was just as demanding on a physical level. Wanting everything to be as authentic as possible meant connecting with a former Marine to learn about her experiences and getting into military shape. “Those training sessions are intense,” she admits. “It’s insane how hard they’re expected to push their bodies. I tried to do some of it with my trainer, Jeanette Jenkins — she pushed me really hard. I put on 15 pounds before we started shooting, and by the end, I’d put on 20 pounds of muscle.”
I love the challenge of being underestimated — it forces me to rise to the occasion.
Beyond weights and cardio, Smollett also had to learn how to shoot firearms. “Initially, our director, Joe [Chappelle], was like, ‘Jurnee, if you can’t get through a whole magazine, it’s okay.’ My hands are very small, and technically, sometimes the gun can jam if you let it backfire and don’t have a firm grip,” she explains. “He was like, ‘We’ll cut around it if you can’t.’ And I was like, ‘Dude, hell no!’ So we trained a lot on the weekends and went to some gun ranges, and I just shot over and over and over. By the end, I was able to get through three or four magazines of 17 rounds, take after take after take after take,” she recalls with a laugh, far more nonchalant and humble than I would personally be if I could do such a thing. “I love stunts, and I love the challenge of being underestimated — it forces me to rise to the occasion.”
From Superhero to Storyteller, Smollett Is Building the Future She Wants to See
Ultimately, Smollett credits Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey, wherein she played vigilante and singer Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary, with taking her fondness for stunts to the next level. “I loved the experience and working with 87eleven — the stunt team was a dream,” she gushes. “They’re the team behind John Wick and so many of our favorite action films, and nobody does it better than them.”
She notes the superhero flick, which also stars Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosie Perez, and Ella Jay Basco, remains particularly important to her for reasons beyond the ass-kicking. “Unfortunately, I don’t get to work in environments that have that many female actresses in the cast often enough. It’s so special how everyone was cheering each other on and working together.”
It sounds like Smollett would be game to return to the franchise if presented the opportunity, though she’s hesitant to confirm or tease what she’d like to see next for the character. “That’s above my pay grade. You gotta ask James and the DC folks about that. There were a lot of exciting things that Misha Green was cooking up,” she says, presumably alluding to the HBO Max film that was announced back in August 2021, “but it’s not up to us.”
Fortunately, Smollett will continue to work with Green in other capacities after collaborating with her on Lovecraft Country and Underground, the former of which was nominated for six Emmys, including one for Smollett in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category. “I definitely feel that she’s my creative soul sister,” Smollett says. “We just get each other creatively, and there’s such a shorthand between the two of us, having worked together for so many years. She writes such complex female characters. She knows my instrument, and I know hers, and by now, it’s just so effortless.” Smollett also teases that they’re currently cooking up something she can’t say much about, but promises it’s “a natural extension and evolution” of their other projects.
Continuing to expand who gets to sit at the table and who builds the table is definitely part of my mission.
I point out that Green is far from the only female director Smollett has worked with lately, a subject that’s been in the news after Nicole Kidman’s vow to work with one every 18 months back in 2017 (and the fact she’s worked with a whopping 27 since then). “Thank you for observing that!” Smollett says, her passion for the subject immediately obvious. “It has been very intentional. Most of my projects, I have to say, over the past few years have been directed or helmed by female storytellers, and I’m very proud of that. It’s part of what I am on a mission to do — to help expand who has access to telling our stories, who gets to tell our stories. People write what they know, and it’s important. Representation matters, and continuing to expand who gets to sit at the table and who builds the table is definitely part of my mission.”
“I’ve loved the filmmakers that I’ve been able to work with recently,” Smollett notes, in reference to a list which includes Maggie Betts for The Burial and Anna Foerster on Lou, though she highlights Minhal Baig as one of her favorites. “We did We Grown Now, which is such a beautiful character-driven piece about these two little boys in Cabrini-Green in Chicago. She did such a great job, and working with her as a part of the producing team and that collaborative process, in general, was really awesome.”
Smollett says that experience inspired her to want to step behind the camera more. “I love the art of storytelling, and so working on the script, revising it, being in the mud earlier than actors typically are involved is something that I’m hungry to do more of.” When I ask if that desire extends to other creative roles — writing or directing, perhaps — the answer is a resounding yes to all of the above. “I do see that in my very near future,” she confirms. “I will keep you updated on that.”
As far as what else Smollett hopes to do, career-wise, she’s open to possibilities — including returning for the Friday Night Lights reboot. “[I’d appear] in a heartbeat. I love Jason Katims, so if I were invited to, it would be an honor. I’d do anything with [him]. He’s phenomenal.” What could we potentially see Jess Merriweather up to when we check back in with her? “I’d like to believe that she’s somewhere coaching an NFL team,” Smollett muses. “Maybe the 49ers.”
Smollett would also like to take to the stage eventually, “when the time is right and when it’s the right project,” off-handedly referencing her desire to do a Broadway musical. I press further about the type of role she could see herself in, and she declines to answer, saying she doesn’t want to put limits on it. No matter what show she finds herself in, I have no doubt she’ll thrive — her impressive work ethic and hunger for a challenge seem like such a perfect fit for the demanding environment of live theater that it’s a little shocking she hasn’t yet found herself there.
Her ability to memorize an entire show at once will also be no issue, as she perfectly recalls James Baldwin word-for-word when our discussion turns to the subject of being an artist. “‘It’s ‘this force which you didn’t ask for, and this destiny which you must accept…and if you survive it, if you don’t cheat, if you don’t lie, it is not only your glory, your achievement — it is almost our only hope. Because only an artist can tell, and only artists have told since we have heard of man, what it is like for anyone who gets to this planet to survive it. And I believe that it’s artists who come to this planet and give us instructions on how to survive it.’”
One can safely assume, after speaking to her, that Baldwin’s perspective, too, is a guiding force for Smollett, driving and influencing every decision she makes in her career. With the world scarier and more isolating than ever, the actress knows how crucial storytelling can be. “The writers, the visual artists, the singers, the dancers, the playwrights, the authors — we learn about humanity [through them],” Smollett says. “And honestly, art helps us feel a little less alone.”
Photography: Hamish Robertson | Location: Los Angeles | Makeup Artist: Jen Tioseco | Hair: Sabrina Porsche
New episodes of Smoke premiere every Friday on Apple TV+.
