Will Smith has established himself as a profitable actor in the movie industry. Although most of his films have grossed millions of dollars at the box office, some have failed commercially. Unfortunately, one of those movies starred Smith and his son Jaden. After the flop, Jaden Smith reportedly petitioned Will Smith for emancipation at just 15 years old. Read more on the subject.
smallIth and Jaden have played father and son twice.
Hollywood directors sometimes prefer to cast father and son duos from current life to capitalize on their current life chemistry. The trick has worked in movies like the heartbreak boyin which Ben and Jerry Stiller appeared on screen as father and son.
Interestingly, the duo had appeared in another film decades before their roles in The distressed child as father and son too. Other father and son duos include Tom and Colin Hanks in Howard the Big Buck and Dan and Eugene Levy, who even won Emmys for their roles in Cala de Schitt.
Smith and Jaden first appeared on screen together in 2006 in the commercial hit Pursuit of happiness. The current-life father-son duo played the same roles in the current-story movie about a homeless medical salesman, Chris Gardner, who became a highly successful stockbroker. The pair took on the roles with Smith playing Gardner and his son Jaden playing his character’s son, Christopher Gardner Jr.
The couple’s relationship seemed to rub off on the audience and the directors. Critics praised their bond, with one calling their relationship “an invaluable asset to the character’s on-screen relationship. The couple appeared in a movie together seven years later in After Earth.
What is ‘After Earth’ about?
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After Earth is a post-apocalyptic film that centers on a human-populated space colony called Nova Prime. In an attempt to gain control of Nova Prime, an alien race attacks using creatures that sense fear. However, the Nova Prime Ranger Corps fend off the attacks due to a fear suppression technique invented by Smith’s character called “Ghosting”.
Before the Ursas are defeated, they kill the Rangers’ leader’s daughter, leaving Kitai, Cypher’s son, feeling guilty over her death. His mother convinces Cypher to take her son on the last trip before retiring. However, their spaceship crashes on the uninhabitable Earth after getting caught in a shower of asteroids.
With Cypher’s legs broken, it’s up to Kitai to find the main beacon to call for help. However, the ship’s tail section broke off upon entering Earth’s atmosphere, meaning Kitai had to go looking for it. Under Cypher’s instructions using a communicator, Kitai fights various obstacles along the way, including a poisonous leech and a thermal shift. Kitai, bent on proving himself, finds the tail section and, after an attack by Ursa, sends a distress signal to Nova Prime, and they are rescued.
JadThe reaction to the failure of ‘After Earth’ left Will Smith with a broken heart and Jaden asking for emancipation.
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After Earth it didn’t work out as well as everyone hoped, and the reviews proved too much for the main actors involved. People obtained excerpts from Smith’s memoir titled It will be, which detailed a moment that left the star heartbroken.
Will Smith noted that the film “was an abysmal box office and critical flop,” noting that his son, Jaden Smith, took the hit for the flop. The star wrote about the cruelty of the press and fans towards him and his son, saying, “They said and posted things about Jaden that I refuse to repeat.” Smith noted that his son had faithfully carried out all the instructions he had been given.
However, he reasoned that by training his son, he had exposed him to “the worst public beating he had ever experienced.” So much so that Jaden, then 15 years old, asked about emancipation. The 53-year-old actor admitted that although Jaden ultimately decided against it, Smith’s “heart broke” at the request.
RElated: How tall are Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and the rest of the Smith family?
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