RC: Did your own maternal instincts play a role in your character development?

JPS: It's interesting because I play a mother on the show, a single parent, of a teenage daughter, and Christina mothers completely differently. I actually have to go against my instincts. Christina's actually a kind of an old-school mom. ... Some of the decisions that I make and how I handle things with [my daughter on the show] sometimes, or how I talk to her at times, is definitely not Jada's get-down as far as how she parents, which I think is hilarious.

I have three teenagers in the house now, that I'm raising now, and how I deal with them and how I deal with her is just totally different, totally. I'm like: this right here is a straight up disaster, and I look at my daughter on the show and she's a really good kid, because for most kids, they would totally rebel. And she doesn't.