Jodie Turner-Smith and Teyana Taylor ‘Really Bond Over Being Single Moms and Hardworking’ (Exclusive)

Jodie Turner-Smith is wearing a shirt with Teyana Taylor’s face on it during her conversation with PEOPLE. But not just any shirt — one Taylor made herself depicting her character in One Battle After Another. 

“I’ve got the merch already,” quips the Tron: Ares star, 39, explaining that Taylor, 34, is “a dear friend of mine. I absolutely adore her. I’m just overwhelmed by how fantastic her performance in that film is.”

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, in theaters now, features Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro, Taylor and more as revolutionaries fighting systemic injustice. The critically acclaimed drama counts Turner-Smith among its fans: “Paul, he really was all the way in his bag with this movie,” she says. 

“I was crying,” adds the actress. “Non-stop, like, I can’t stop thinking about it.” And Taylor’s work as Perfidia Beverly Hills, she says, is “her best performance to date, and I pray that our peers recognize her for what I believe is going to go down as the best performance of the year.”

When asked about dream roles, the Queen & Slim star says she wants to do “everything,” from musicals to horror. But Taylor, of course, is on the list.

“This woman works hard,” she says. Case in point: the Perfidia Beverly Hills merch that the A Thousand and One star herself designed. “It’s so good,” says Turner-Smith of her shirt. “I’m like, ‘Wait, can you make me some?’ I’m actually going to call her next.”

The two actresses share more than just acting talent, as the Anne Boleyn star points out. “We really bond over being single moms and hardworking,” she says of Taylor. Turner-Smith is mom to 5-year-old daughter Juno, who she shares with ex-husband Joshua Jackson (the two married in 2019 and split in 2023, settling their divorce this May). Taylor coparents two daughters with ex Iman Shumpert, her husband from 2016 to 2024; the actress-musician has been linked to Aaron Pierre since June.

“I love to see my friends excelling and their hard work paying off,” continues Turner-Smith, who also counts Nancy Gomez and Daniel Kaluuya in her inner circle. “Nobody knows how difficult things can be behind the scenes. It is a choice to get up every day and put a smile on your face and be grateful and to not give anybody else bad energy because of something that you’re going through.”

When she sees pals like Taylor “doing that too,” says Turner-Smith, “I’m just like, ‘I’m here to support you.’”

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Tron: Ares is in theaters now. Turner-Smith also stars in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, in theaters now, and will continue to star in Paramount+ spy drama The Agency, currently filming its second season.