I like Will Smith and don’t have any feelings about his kid either way. I figured I would just leave this thread alone, because I know how it is when a celebrity gets under your skin. They can do no right.
I’ve read on a few occasions that some hip hop fans consider Will Smith a sellout. For, among other reasons, dropping his stage name. I don’t agree with this. (I think it is hard to not look silly going by the name Fresh Prince when you aren’t a teenager anymore. Ice Cube or Queen Latifah have an easier time of it.) But, I do understand where they are coming from. Aside from that, any megastar like Smith is going to have a backlash. And, having his kid star in a movie won’t help at all. And on top of all that a summer blockbuster is in your face with ads. Pretty quickly Jaden Smith is all over the place.
But, that live journal thread about Jaden on David Letterman is over the top and stupid. He didn’t come across to me as being an “obnoxious shit”. He was an 11 year old on an adult show trying to be funny and in some cases succeeding. He seemed respectful of the adults he talked about and has what sounds like a normal relationship with his parents and siblings.
Have you read that on a few occasions? I find that interesting, because in my entire 30 years immersed in the hip hop culture, I have heard that exactly once. And it was when I said it on this very board. Let’s examine what I said, though, because I think people might have read a bit much into it.
So what we have here is a situation that I dislike a Hollywood personality for all sorts of dumb reasons (the reasons will always be dumb, because actually liking a or disliking a person based on what you know about them as a Hollywood personality is kind of dumb, to me. Because that personality is manufactured to bring fame and money in the show biz industry…it’s not real) but who threw in the fact that his name change wasn’t surprising, as an afterthought.
I noticed in the linked thread that people jumped on that. But the truth is, you can’t make people have real reasons for hating a celeb, because the ‘celeb’ isn’t a real person. They chose a profession that pretty much projects a fake persona. I mean, they have handlers and agents and managers and stylists and a PR machine set up to assure that. This is why it is fun to hate (or love) celebs. It is because they have sacrificed a real life in order to offer themselves to their ‘public’. Some of them go to great lengths to maintain their privacy, as they see their work as more of a craft than a way to be a STAR. I respect artists like that, and am less likely to snark on them. But when you have a bunch of Hollywood stars, acting all Hollywood starry, you are going to get some negative response to balance out all the alcolades you are enjoying.
As to the part where ‘he can do no right’, I gues that may be true for some Will Smith haters, but not for me. I appreciate that Jaden had to work his ass off to be that good in that film. I think Will Smith was a pretty good party rapper and he had one of the best Deejays in hip hop history. So he can do some right. I’ll bet I can’t count how much right he does in his personal life, but I can’t really judge that because I only know his Hollywood persona. If I knew him as a real person, I would try not to judge him at all, and I would respect him as a good person, if I knew him to be that, personally. I’m sure he is.
Hating him for dropping his stage name seems kind of silly. I mean, what, was he supposed to go through his whole life being known as the Fresh Prince? It just seems so…juvenile.
I grew up in a very white town. I graduated with exactly one black person, and she was in special ed. The community college didn’t get black people until Katrina. I hate that they all left, because it says a lot about the intolerance still present in the community.
Anyways, my point is that, in ninth grade, my friend Nathan started living here. No matter how racist everyone was, they were all fascinated with his hair. And just him in general. In fact, I suspect the racism didn’t quite make it to my generation, at least back then.
That said, he did wind up leaving because of it. Hid dad couldn’t find a job.
I guess I must have read the stage thing name here when you said it and I figured it was a big deal to lots of people. But, the overall sentiment that he is a sellout I have read all over the place. Bringing that up muddied the waters anyhow. I was just saying I could understand why people disliked him. There are plenty of reasons. And, while I might like some of Will Smith’s personality. I am sure there are actors out there that are like nails on the chalkboard to me while others don’t mind them. I am not criticizing the dislike. I just thought that Letterman clip was so far from obnoxious that it brought me out of the woodwork.
Err, I hope I didn’t come off all defensive. I thought your post was a great post. Will Smith just happens to be my all-time favorite star to love-to-hate.
This kid is so obnoxious.
He did an interview (on Leno?) a few years back and you could tell he was already tired of the whole acting career at what, age 8?
His parents obviously think their little darling should become a mega-star and are pushing him to do it. Gee…that always works out so well for kids. Can’t imagine what could go wrong there,
BTW, remember the first Eddie Murphy film of Nutty Professor?
The opening scene had a child actor playing Eddie as a kid.
That was the son of a guy I worked with.
His son thought it was a fun thing to do and really wanted to do it.
The (single) dad only agreed after getting approval from the kid’s school to take the time off for filming.
Every penny was put into an account for the kid’s college education.
I was completely ignoring this thread until I watched the Letterman interview over the weekend. How could anyone be sick of this kid already?
Holy flurking schnit, this is one smug messed up brat of kid. He’s a two-year old with behavior issues. Definitely doomed to be a coked-out has-been by the age of 20.