Emyatzi Corinealdi Defends Her Character’s Addiction Story on ‘Reasonable Doubt’

Emyatzi Corinealdi, the woman who stars as the formidable and messy Jax Stewart on “Reasonable Doubt,” is speaking out and defending her character’s current addiction storyline on the show. But her words may be falling on deaf ears with fans who don’t quite get with the portrayal.

Corinealdi recently sat down for a new interview for “The Big Tigger Show,” where she addressed the online backlash to powerful attorney Stewart struggling with pill addiction after being shot. Just one scroll on X/Twitter or Threads will show you a mountain of people who are disappointed to see a strong and determined character like Stewart succumb to addiction and resort to popping pills to deal with her daily stressors.

Related: What We Need to See In Reasonable Doubt Season Four

But Corinealdi thinks fans are being a bit unfair to her character. She argued that the same things folks love about her are still there, despite her current struggles.

“How can you be disappointed?” Corinealdi questioned. “See, here’s the thing: the same things that we love about Jax- her ability to fight- she’s going to get through. She’s going to persevere. She’s going to do all the things. Her strength! Everything that’s there, that is still present in her, deciding to take these pills. She is the same person.

The actress then challenged folks to take a look at themselves and ask why watching someone like Stewart go through addiction makes them so uncomfortable. She then touched on the discomfort folks feel when they see a successful woman like Stewart crack under pressure and turn to maladaptive behaviors to cope.

“There’s something there that’s uncomfortable. Because we don’t like to see someone who has it together as much as this woman does possibly go down this road. You don’t want to see it. I think that is what is bothering people,” Corinealdi explained.

Now, it should be noted here that Stewart has played in the gray areas ever since season one. From the very beginning, we’ve seen small examples of how bad she is at dealing with things and getting a grip on her anxiety (remember all the joints she smoked?) We’ve also seen an increase in focus on Stewart’s father’s background and his history with addiction.

So, it’s not too far-fetched to see why the writers decided to bring the topic a bit closer to home in this new season. Still, Corinealdi’s reasoning still isn’t enough to sway some fans from being put off by it.

“I do hate it and tired of it. She already got shot; what’s wrong with not liking this particular storyline?” one user wrote on Instagram.

“We don’t like Junkie Jax,” said another.

One other user wrote: “Our problem with this st*pid ass storyline is that she just saw someone die of a drug addiction in her home in her son’s bedroom. So Jax wouldn’t potentially want to put her kids through that again. If they wanted her to [go] through adversity, maybe make her addicted to alcohol or gambling, but drugs.”

Added another: “But damn, stealing your friend prescription pad is real junkie behavior, like, got damn.”

However, there were a few who felt as if the storyline was a good way to show what successful Black women go through behind the scenes to keep them from cracking under the pressure to always look like they have everything together.

“I think as a community we have the ideal of perfection to be successful and black vs accepting and being vulnerable to show when life isn’t perfect and being strong is hard…Maybe if we didn’t feel we had to have no flaws, she woulda reached out for help before getting addicted to pain meds,” wrote one person on Instagram.

Noted another user: “Jax whole storyline is about her flaws and imperfections despite her success. This is real. Many ‘strong black women’ are battling all types of vices, patterns, addictions, etc. One does not negate the other.”