‘Without Remorse’ star Jodie Turner-Smith talks shooting an action film while pregnant

Jodie Turner-Smith would probably think twice before signing onto another action movie ~while pregnant~ after her experience on the set of Without Remorse. 

The 34-year-old actress plays Navy SEAL Karen Greer in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, and she took on a huge challenge shooting the film while pregnant with her now 11-month older daughter Janie with husband Joshua Jackson.

Turner-Smith told Etalk’s Traci Melchor that she doesn’t regret filming the action movie and kicking ass on set but she wishes she knew more about the changes her body would face before putting in all that work.

“I mean, listen, maybe if I had talked to you before I did it, I wouldn’t have done it because I had no idea… I feel like we really need to do better about really educating humans about what is required of women who have babies and give birth because it’s like, woah! I had no idea about the stuff my body was going to be going through.”

To prepare for the action-packed role, Turner-Smith said she was prepping the same way everyone else in the movie was by working with a personal trainer, stunt coordinator and getting acquainted with the equipment on set.

She said they were also “working with military consultants who were helping us get through it" and she was wearing the same equipment that everyone else was wearing.

"I had the same heaviness of the weapons and the armour we’re wearing. None of that was different for me. In time, obviously, you can’t breathe the same… exhaustion. Your whole entire body is rallying around nurturing this life inside of you,” the Queen & Slim actress said.

Looking back on her time shooting the film, Turner-Smith called the experience “wild” and “not easy.”

“It was very difficult, but I did it. When I made it out the other end I was like OK, maybe I would do it a little differently next time, as in not do an action film where you’re like getting blown up, getting blown through walls and ceilings, running and jumping into helicopters, being underwater and holding your breath. Nobody told me how hard it was going to be to hold my breath while pregnant!”

Turner-Smith was attracted to playing her character, who is graceful, strong and vulnerable, for many different reasons.

“I’m always attracted to this idea of playing a strong Black woman onscreen. I love characters like that and I really saw that in Karen. I love that, number one, the fact that in real life, there aren’t women in the position that she’s in and sort of just normalizing that and imagining into that space.”

She wants people to ask things about Karen like, “What did she go through to get where she is now in life?”; “What made her choose to go down this path in her life?”; and “Who is she behind all of that?”

Other aspects that drew Turner-Smith to the movie were 1) getting involved in a Tom Clancy action thriller and 2) Michael B. Jordan, of course.

“It was so good to be playing a role where it was like showcasing a platonic love between a man and a woman because I feel like we so never really get to see that. When I get hired for things, it’s generally to be, you know, a very attractive accessory. Everything before Queen & Slim was how do you serve as this man’s story with your beauty or your body?” Turner-Smith said.

“I think it was so unique and interesting to play a role about their platonic love and that fact that there’s a woman that’s so loyal, so intelligent, so smart, so strong and so dedicated to justice.”

She continued: “And then obviously, Michael B Jordan, sexiest man alive. He’s so sweet and funny. I got some really great content that I will be sharing with the internet once the film comes out.”

 We will all be waiting on that JTS, MBJ content!

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