Will Smith and his wiener kid are starring in an M. Night Shyamalan movie this summer, so the Will Smith’s-wiener-kids news cycle is really starting to heat up. The latest news is that Jaden, for his 15th birthday, wants to be emancipated. From the slavery of being treated as a public manifestation of his father’s fame, presumably, which doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request. Jeez, you buy the kid’s way into the movie business, and the next thing you know he’s getting a big head.
Will explains that Jaden, who will be celebrating his 15th birthday in July and is close pals with 19-year-old Justin Bieber, asked for a very unique gift.
“He says, ‘Dad, I want to be emancipated.’ I know if we do this, he can be an emancipated minor, because he really wants to have his own place, like ‘Ooh,’” Will explained.
“I told him ‘you’re only 15, you don’t have a rep yet.'”
“That’s the backlash. On the other side, if kids just want to have command of their lives, I understand.”
“We generally don’t believe in punishment,” he says. “From the time Jaden was five or six, we would sit him down, and all he has to do is be able to explain why what he did was the right thing for his life. I think it’s a much more difficult question to ask someone —’Why was that right?’ — than to try to show them why it was wrong.
“Nobody wants to be wrong, all parts of yourself fight like crazy to not be wrong. So I’ll say to Jaden, ‘Why was that the right thing to do for your life?’ and if he can explain why kicking his sister in the chest was the right thing to do, we can see to it that he understands that it wasn’t so smart.” [Sun]
Oooh, please, give us more parenting advice, guy whose 14-year-old son hangs out with Justin Bieber.
In any case, we’ve got an exclusive clip from After Earth after the jump.
This looks pretty good, for an M. Night Shyamalan movie.