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Here! caught up with one of Hollywood's most famous families

RECENTLY in town for the premiere of their new film, The Karate Kid (Will, Jada and son Jaden are all involved in the project so it's a real family affair), the Smiths really are a force to be reckoned with.

With Hollywood star Will at the helm and actress wife Jada being his strong and sassy right hand woman, it's no wonder the couple’s children are successes in their own right.

In The Karate Kid, it's 12-year-old Jaden who stars as Dre, the budding martial arts expert, in this remake of the classic 1984 original. But while it's Jaden who wows in front of the camera (he's already won the 2010 ShoWest Breakthrough Male Star of the Year award for his role), mummy and daddy were behind the scenes, serving as the film's producers. (The film is a product of Will’s production company, Overbrook Entertainment, so between him, Jada and Jaden, you know they were saying ‘ching ching’ with the film’s release!)

Still, it was Jaden who took centre stage at a recent press conference in London. Flanked by Will and Jada and Hollywood star Jackie Chan, who stars in the film as martial arts expert Mr Han (the role originally played by the late Pat Morita), Jaden looked like a true star. Strutting to his seat, with sunglasses perched on his head and his afro flying freely, Jaden’s relaxed demeanour was a reminder that he’s no stranger to the film business. In fact, Will joked that his son’s rising stardom looked set to rival his own.

“When The Karate Kid opened, it took in $56 million in the United States, which is bigger than any of my movies, other than Hancock and I Am Legend,” Will laughed. “So I’m starting to wonder if Jaden still needs to live at our house. And if one more person calls me ‘the Karate Kid’s dad’, I’m gonna be like, ‘Men In Black 3 is out immediately!’”

IMMENSELY proud of his youngest son (Will has an 18-year-old son from his previous marriage), Will admitted that he struggles to choke back the emotions when he sees Jaden in action.

Asked if he sees himself in Jaden, Will said: “He has the best of Jada and I, but he’s truly his own being. It’s amazing to me that you can go to Mexico, drink some tequila, then he [he points to Jaden] shows up nine months later! No, seriously, he’s a fantastic, disciplined young man. It’s strange that he’s extremely sensitive so he can capture emotion, but at the same time, when it came to the hard work – doing multiple takes to get things right – he has the mentality it takes to bear the weight of what this kind of film requires.”

Filmed in China, The Karate Kid sees Jaden demonstrating a host of martial arts moves.

“I had a lot of training so it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” Jaden said of the kung fu skills he shows in the film. “I thought I’d have to be out in the snow training every day and stuff like that. But it wasn’t like that. Doing the kung fu and martial arts training made it much easier to do it in front of the camera.”

Having also starred in the 2008 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, and also alongside his dad in the 2006 hit movie The Pursuit of Happyness, Jaden and his sister Willow (who starred alongside Will in 2007’s I Am Legend), are the epitome of child stars. However, their parents insist that their kids aren’t likely to experience the often inevitable breakdown that many child stars eventually go through.

“Will and I talk about this a lot,” Jada says. “I think that one of the advantages that Jaden has – that a lot of child stars haven’t had – is that his parents have been in this business for a long time. We understand the industry; the dos and don’ts and the ups and downs. When your dad is the biggest movie star in the world, it kinda keeps you grounded! Jaden won’t be paying any bills any time soon! So Jaden’s life may seem strange to some people, but he grew up in this industry and he understands that this is a family business.”

Will adds: “He didn’t have that radical life change that a lot of child actors usually experience when they first come into the business. I think one of the most difficult elements for a lot of child stars is that they suddenly become the breadwinner in their family. And when they break, it’s usually the result of the pressure they face being the breadwinner at 14 or 15 years old.

“At 41 years old, I know how much pressure there is being the breadwinner in the household! So imagine putting that pressure onto a child. As a parent, you’d feel like a bit of your power has been destroyed, so you’d either become a dictator, in order to maintain that parent-child relationship, or you’d surrender. I hope, as parents, that we’re focusing closely on our kids’ energy and his desires... I mean, Jaden, how are we doing as parents?”

Jaden considered for a moment before saying to his dad: “I think you should let me stay out later.”

“You stay out ‘til like 10.30pm sometimes,” Will replied. “So what time do you think you should be able to stay out ‘til?”

Again, Jaden paused to think: “I think you should be like, ‘Jaden, you have to be back by three in the morning’.”

Will laughed: “Nah... I don’t think that’s gonna go down!”

Seemingly a loving family, one wondered how Will strikes the balance between work-mode and family-mode. How did he give his son orders his son as a producer, without being hated as daddy?

“The key for me is to keep reminding myself that winning with my family is more important than winning at the box office,” Will says. “I do want to push my children to achieve, and every day, I have to remind myself – well, Jada has to remind me – that the family has to come first and the projects come second.

“That’s been difficult for me because the way that I’ve been able to achieve things and make things happen the way I want them to happen, is to adopt the mentality that nothing gets in the way. I mean, I did Ali with a broken thumb. I was like, ‘Let’s just pack the glove up a little tighter and keep going.’ I’ve always had that mentality so it has been a struggle for me to find that balance. But it comes back to faith. If you connect to a greater purpose and you have meaning that’s beyond each project, it stops obsessive behaviour from taking over.”

It also helps that Jada’s on hand to provide mummy comfort.

“At the start, there was talk about me possibly playing Jaden’s mother in the movie,” Jada says of the role that’s played by actress Taraji P. Henson. “But I realised that for this film, he was really gonna need his real mummy off-camera. So I decided that I needed to be there as mummy, in order to support him fully.”

With the Smiths spending four months in China to shoot the film, was there any time for them to kick back and relax as a family?

“There really wasn’t much family time,” Jada admits. “It was pretty much a working trip. But it was wonderful being able to submerge our children into a culture that’s so different. When we were filming one of the scenes, Jaden was able to see how some people in China live. After that, he decided to donate some of his money to Jackie’s foundation. So the trip enabled Jaden to see aspects of life that he might not have been able to see if we hadn’t gone to China.

“And then our daughter fell in love with the language and so she’s been learning Mandarin! So being in China for four months was a fantastic experience for our children.”

With Will often glancing lovingly at his wife (he was sure to pull her seat out for her when she stepped into the room too), it wasn’t hard to get the sense that it’s Jada who keeps the family in check. How does she do it?

“It’s very simple – love. When you love authentically you can really connect to what is needed. It’s about being able to look at Jaden and Willow, and even my husband and know what they need. Loving your family enables you to provide what’s needed.”

The Karate Kid is in cinemas now through Columbia Pictures

Published: 25 July 2010
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