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Being upbeat is a hallmark of Jada Pinkett Smith’s. Despite any hard times, she’s known to find the silver lining. She’ll post an Instagram photo about being grateful or discuss making overcoming adversity on her Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk. Although she didn’t always have a positive outlook about herself. It took a comment from Tom Cruise to help her see herself in a new light. 

Jada Pinkett Smith and Tom Cruise have starred in 1 movie together

Tom Cruise and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the premiere of 'Collateral' in Berlin, Germany
Tom Cruise and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the premiere of Collateral in Berlin, Germany | Kurt Vinion/WireImage

Pinkett Smith and Cruise don’t just run in the same circle as famous actors in Hollywood. They’ve also worked together. 

They both starred in the 2004 film, Collateral. A crime-thriller directed and produced by Michael Mann, the movie followed Cruise and Jamie Foxx as the leads and Pinkett Smith as a supporting character.

Aside from being co-stars, the two actors are friends. They’ve walked red carpets together and crossed paths at other industry events. 

Tom Cruise told Jada Pinkett Smith to ‘stop’ rejecting compliments

During a July 2011 interview with Redbook magazine, Pinkett Smith explained how Cruise taught her to dismiss “doubts” she had about herself. She confessed as a kid she didn’t think of herself as “pretty.”

As an adult, she brushed off compliments. The Bad Moms actor recalled how Cruise pointed it out to her and encouraged her to accept any kind words that came her way. 

“I used to believe I wasn’t pretty, because growing up, I was never told that I was,” she said before adding, “Actually, it was Tom Cruise who taught me how to get rid of those doubts.”

“He said, ‘Every time I compliment you, you always reject it. You need to stop doing that. Just say, ‘Thank you,'” she recalled. “So I’ve learned to accept a compliment.”

So, Pinkett Smith has Cruise to thank for helping her to overcome the negative thoughts she had about herself. 

Jada Pinkett Smith got into a feud with Leah Remini about Tom Cruise and Scientology

According to USA Today, Pinkett Smith and her husband, Will Smith, became associated with Cruise and the Church of Scientology after Leah Remini wrote an anecdote about them in her 2015 memoir, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.

Thanks to her remark and additional comments about it during two interviews — one on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen and another with Daily Beast — rumors began to circulate they were indeed Scientologists.

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Pinkett Smith took to Twitter to refute the claims and she and Remini didn’t speak for years. In 2018, Remini joined Pinkett Smith on Red Table Talk to discuss what happened. Pinkett Smith said she denied Remini’s claims she and her husband were Scientologists, saying the mention “hurt” her.  

“It upset me because I didn’t understand why we had to be in your book, because we really didn’t have anything to do with this,” she told Remini. 

The two ended the conversation by making up. As for Pinkett Smith and Cruise, they have yet to star in another movie together. 

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