Jodie Turner-Smith stars alongside her “heroes” Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in the upcoming crime comedy Murder Mystery 2.
The model-turned-actress plays Countess Sekou in the whodunit, as Sandler and Aniston reprise their roles as husband and wife detectives Nick and Audrey Spitz.
Turner-Smith tells 9Honey Celebrity working with the pair on the sequel to their 2019 Netflix film completely exceeded her expectations.
Watch the video above.
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“They are obviously two legends, I’ve been fans of both of them for a long time,” the 36-year-old says over Zoom.
“You sort of have this expectation of people like, you know, expectation versus reality. Sometimes you have to be careful, you know, like, ‘don’t meet your heroes’.
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“But I have to say that for both of them, it honestly exceeded the story that I’d told myself in my head, which made it even more amazing.”
The British-born star, who now calls the US home with actor husband Joshua Jackson and their two-year-old daughter Janie, says the vibe on the “exotic” set was “collaborative, warm, funny, kind, hilarious”.
The working mum also tells to 9Honey Celebrity she was able to manage the juggle of motherhood with shoots in Hawaii and Paris thanks to “a lot of support”.
“I have the privilege of having access to a lot of support,” Turner-Smith admits.
“I think that makes it a lot easier for me than for the average superhero mum who’s out here with a fraction of the support that I have.
“Obviously, no matter how much support you have, you’re going to have mum guilt, right? Because we live in a world that even as the workplace has been opened up to women in such a wonderful way, women are still asked to choose and also still kind of told that they can only be good at one or the other – and that choosing one or the other makes them less.
“If you choose motherhood over working, you’re less. If you choose working over motherhood, you’re less. If you’re trying to do both at the same time, you’re definitely failing.
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“So, you know, I just navigate it one day at a time, taking deep breaths, being patient with myself and everyone around me and being full of gratitude for all who helped me to make it happen.
“Just fingers crossed that my daughter doesn’t end up in therapy later talking about how much of a b**** I was,” she laughs.
Turner-Smith says she’s always been keen to showcase strong women on screen but adds that it’s become more important to her now to lead by example as a mum to a little girl.
“I look for women that have been written as interesting characters and not as like two dimensional, here to serve the desires or plotline of the man,” she tells 9Honey Celebrity.
“And yes, definitely, obviously, as a mum, you know, I want to be a part of things that are telling fun stories for women or showing one of the multitude of elements or aspects of womanhood.”
While this new film is yet to be released on the streaming service, the actress hints to 9Honey Celebrity that Sandler and Aniston could team up again to round out a trilogy in the franchise.
“I’ve literally been begging them since we wrapped to include me in Murder Mystery 3 – that was how much I loved working with them.”
Murder Mystery 2 premieres on Netflix worldwide on March 31.
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