While chatting with PEOPLE for this week's PEOPLE in 10, the Lovecraft Country actress, 38, opens up about how close her son Hunter, 8, and costar Taron Egerton became on set.
"Because our characters have to maintain a level of this dynamic, we didn't socialize at all on set with the exception of Taron and my son Hunter, who were very close. That was cute," she tells PEOPLE.
"They were like best buds on set. That was cute," she adds. "Hunter was hanging out with him without me, and I was like 'Dude really?' Even today, he was like 'Tell Taron I said hi.'"
The actress goes on to share whether her son has been able to see her in action. She reveals that she's only recently started to show him specific things and says that he was really interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of filming.
"Only this year I started showing him things, but I have to like fast forward so much, you know?" she said. "With Smoke, he was able to be on set and actually watch some of the scenes. Some of the scenes he obviously couldn't watch, but he was so fascinated by the behind-the-scenes special effects."
"He loved all the behind-the-scenes stuff and would talk to the writers and find out spoilers, and then come home and tell me things I didn't even know," she says, laughing.
Smollett shares her son with ex Josiah Bell. After welcoming her little one, the former child star admitted to PEOPLE that it's hard to "pinpoint one thing" she loves most about being a new mom, but that the ability to reflect on how she is changing is a big one.
"He's teaching me so much about myself. He's teaching me so much about love," Smollett said of Hunter. "I see myself in him, and I start to love that about myself even more."
"It's like I see the world differently now, through his eyes," she continued. "He makes me reassess, really, what matters."
While she tends to keep her private life away from the public eye, she does share tidbits about her son during interviews. On the Thursday, June 12, episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Underground actress gave an update on her son Hunter. Smollett shared that her son is currently obsessed with all things sports.
"He's 8 going on 48. He's getting so big. He's obsessed with sports and athletes and [Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson]. He really wants to have a muscular build at 8," she told host Jimmy Fallon. "Well, we work out together now. It's really cute."
"He came to me and was like, 'Mommy, I want to have a six-pack.' He said, 'Can you teach me how to do this?' So, I taught him some ab work on the floor, you know, a little gentle stuff," she shared. “He does it for a few days, comes to me, raises his shirt up, and he’s like, ‘Mommy! Look! I got two packs!’”
“And, I’m like, ‘Look at you with your two packs, man!’ And so I make him dinner, some pasta and salmon cakes and broccoli. He goes to take a shower. He comes in devastated. He said, ‘Mommy, I lost my packs,’ ” she recalled. “I had to explain to him, ‘Man, the packs they come and go.’ ”