Jurnee Smollett, acclaimed 38-year-old actress, who came into the spotlight as a child star, has taken on the role of a flawed and complex former Marine in the AppleTV+ series "Smoke".

Smollett shared that she is always looking for ways to grow with her characters, and that she doesn’t want to ever be “pigeonholed as one type of thing.”

“Whether it was a superhero in DC Comics or Letitia-fucking-Lewis in [Lovecraft Country], or a lawyer in The Burial, or a single mom fighting to find her daughter in Lou, I’m so fortunate that I get to step into all these different professions,” Smollett tells The Hollywood Reporter.

In the Apple TV+ series Smoke she plays Michelle, a troubled detective who is “struggling with these real inner demons,” she told the outlet. The show, inspired by true events, follows her character and Taron Egerton’s Dave, an enigmatic arson investigator, as they pursue the trails of two serial arsonists.

Smollett shares about Smoke season one and her preparations to play Michelle.

“This character of Michelle was so juicy (laughs) and so flawed. She’s struggling with these real inner demons; her trauma from her childhood and her relationships with her mother and how it manifests."

"It was such an opportunity as an actor to stretch and do something unlike anything I’ve really done. I physically transformed, I put on like 15 pounds of muscle. She’s a former Marine and has to have more of a stocky, tough persona than I naturally have.”

She goes on to discuss the mindset she had to adopt to play a former member of the armed forces.

“She’s a bit of a self-saboteur, and I think we can all relate to that. We can relate to that struggle where you go, “Wait, I know I’m supposed to take this route and yet I’m so enticed by going this way.”

Smollett also recently opened up about motherhood on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," see below for her take on motherhood: