Jodie Turner-Smith Got Real About How Pregnant People Are "Discriminated" Against In The Workforce

    "Even in our business, people treat you different."

    Larry Fitzmaurice
    by Larry Fitzmaurice

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Last April, actor Jodie Turner-Smith welcomed her first child with husband Joshua Jackson.

    Jodie Turner-Smith at the 2020 British Academy Film Awards
    Stephane Cardinale - Corbis / Getty Images

    In a recent interview with People, Smith — who stars in the upcoming action film Tom Clancy's Without Remorse — talked about what she discovered about speaking up for herself while pregnant in the workplace.

    View this video on YouTube
    Amazon Prime Video / youtube.com

    "Being a pregnant person taught me to advocate even harder for myself," she explained. "You see the ways in which you're discriminated against as a pregnant person in the workforce."

    "I mean, even in our business, people treat you different. That was interesting."

    Turner-Smith says the experience caused her to "learn so much about [herself]": "There were definitely times where I was like, 'Well, I really think maybe I'm in over my head here.'"

    "I just really got down to business and pushed through. I'm so excited to share that eventually with my daughter, like, 'I was pregnant with you when I did that.'"

    Turner-Smith also opened up about the ways in which she lives in the world now that she's a parent: "I have to, in my ways, show her how to be a person that loves themself."

    "Loving yourself means having boundaries, means standing up for yourself, means standing up for what's right in the world. We're seeing so many things happen in the world that are not right."

    Without Remorse hits Amazon Prime on April 30.