Kyra Sedgwick, Holly Hunter, Angela Lansbury - Baltimore native Jada Pinkett Smith is about to join some pretty exclusive company when her new weekly TV series, HawthoRNe, debuts Tuesday on TNT. Like those other actresses who made their reputations in feature films, she is coming to TV as both star and executive producer of a series designed to showcase her talents.
The trade-off is a simple one: The TV network or cable channel gets a film-caliber star who will attract new viewers, and the star gets a steady paycheck and control of the material in which she appears. British TV had been doing it for years in limited-run series with performers such as Helen Mirren (Prime Suspect), but cable Channel TNT seems to have adapted the model best for American television with Sedgwick's The Closer, which started a new season last week, and Hunter's Saving Grace, which returns Tuesday with new episodes.
Pinkett Smith, who started in TV full time in 1991 playing a college freshman on Bill Cosby's NBC sitcom A Different World and made her name in films with Menace II Society and The Matrix Reloaded, says she sought out producing duties to try to evolve as an artist.
"I needed to kind of sharpen my storytelling skills," she says. "And I needed to get back into a grind, because I felt like I was getting too comfortable. And so, I needed to jolt myself. That's the only way I keep myself inspired and keep myself growing and learning. So I really wanted to throw myself into an area that I have to really work at to understand. ... And I must say that I feel like I've grown quite a bit on many different levels."
And if you think the offer is made to every marquee actress, check out the credits for Edie Falco's Nurse Jackie that premiered last week on Showtime. Falco, who stars as a nurse in that drama just as Pinkett Smith does in hers, is only the hired on-screen help. And in the cases of Sedgwick and Hunter, both started as producers in their first season. Pinkett Smith is the first to arrive as an executive producer.
For her part, Sedgwick says one of the most important aspects of being a producer is that it allows her "input" on her character during the writing.
"It's really about the writing," she says. "The writing is still interesting to me, and I'm really grateful for that. It could be really challenging if you feel like you're bored and going over the same character points. I don't feel like we're doing that, in part because it is such a collaborative writng process, and I am a part of that as a producer."
