Daddy Dearest / Daddy Warbucks
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 11:45PM 
Willow Smith: Daughter of WILL SMITH in case you forgot!You guys...
I was going to talk about this last week but decided against it under the umbrella "if you don't have anything nice to say..." But now Willow Smith had to go and remind me by wearing her dad when she hit the red carpet for the BET Awards. Just in case you forgot why you should care about her!
It wasn't enough for Will Smith to foist his son upon the world by way of co-starring roles when he was 9 (Pursuit of Happyness) and a leading gig (The Karate Kid) by the time he was 11. Now, he wants his daughter to be equally famous: cue record deals and movie contracts; she's 10.
You've heard by now -- though some of you may have blocked it out -- that Smith is hiring Emma Thompson to adapt the musical "Annie" for his daughter to whip her hair back and forth in in the starring role.
♫ The fame'll come out tomorrow
Bet Will's billion dollars,
that tomorrow
there'll be fame. ♪
How long before we start hearing disturbing things about this family? His kids just seem awfully young to be pushed so aggressively towards global fame. There are many famous Hollywood dynasties of course -- nothing wrong with following in your parents footsteps -- but how often does the second generation get this big a push this early?
Okay, maybe I did just spend way too much time watching Ryan O'Neal talk up Tatum O'Crazy the other day. But believe me when I say that if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie suddenly decided that they needed to produce movies to star each of their children before they hit puberty, I'd worry about that family, too.
Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan in "Annie" (1982)Or maybe I'm just annoyed that one of the great actresses of the past century -- that'd be Emma -- has been relegated to behind the scenes scripting duties for the vanity projects of another star's offspring. Vulture suggested last week that Emma would make an awesome Miss Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett in the last movie version and Kathy Bates in a telefilm) and we concede that if that happened, we'd totally be interested. I hope Will Smith is going to pay Emma very very well but the thing is ...I'm starting to think that we should get compensation pay from someone for every year that we don't have Emma Thompson on our movie screens (sans Nanny McPhee makeup, I mean).
Hopefully Emma's "Oh" character in next summer's Men in Black III is a fun one.
Annie, Emma Thompson, Screenplays, Will Smith, Willow Smith, child stars, musicals, remakes
Reader Comments (29)
Totally agree with your view of pushing the YOUNG children into the spotlight ... my wife and I were disgusted with the boy first off ... then when the girl started the singing gig, we lost all respect for BOTH parents.. $ and fame in Hollywood at any expense is the way I see it... and there are a myriad examples to back up one's claims.
I hate the Smith children especially Willow. I sir will join your cause against them.
Emma Thompson doesn't seem to care these days. I miss Howard's End Emma. That film is such a contemporary classic.
I do agree that his kids are very young. There's nothing wrong with them wanting to be in the spotlight but it should be a decision that they make for themselves rather than thrust upon them.
Nathaniel, what a great write up.
and i totally agree with all you've said.
They're thrusting their kids on us, like Vintage Elle said, let them decide for themselves.
Let them be kids and "enjoy" childhood.
It doesn't help though when Hollywood happily helps and greenlights all these projects and music execs sign these Smith kids.
GREAT GREAT BLOG Nathaniel
I think Will Smith is a huge star that is also very good actor, when he wants to be. But this is sick.
On Emma, I'll repeat what I said a few days ago about Jodie Foster. Why are some of my favorite actors so lazy? I swear I won´t love any lazy actors anymore. It's painful.
I don't want all actors to be like Cate Blanchett (anyway, she is strangely absent. In a few more years I think I'll be missing her), but I need more amazing performances to adore. YIf you're still capable of that, don't deny your fans what they deserve.
Considering the only version of Annie I like is the film adaptation with Burnett, I'm not big on protecting the property. Any show that features a bunch of hobos complaining about Herbert Hoover in an unending dirge of a bad vaudeville throwback number isn't worth getting upset over.
I tend to believe Jada Pinkett-Smith in that the children aren't being pushed into the spotlight if they don't want it. The only difference between the Smith children and most children in America is that most children don't have parents with such deep industry connections to let them try professional singing or acting like it was a local dance class or little league baseball.
I feel absolutely no compunction about my distaste for the entire Smith family, including their obnoxious spawn. Never before have I seen such an aggressive, calculated campaign to compel children's stardom nor such a sense of entitlement by people so young, which I believe to be more the issue than anything else. My impression is that people would be more yielding to the inevitability of their celebrity if the kids seemed more gracious.
cal - I'm already somewhat missing Cate. I understand that 3 young children and the theater she runs with her husband in Sydney mean she'll probably limit herself to about 1 movie per year for a while now, but watching Hanna last night reminded me how I can never take my eyes off her, even if the performance isn't *that* special (also, though I love her, she hasn't been in many films I care about). I just hope she won't waste her once-a-year appearances on stuff like Indiana Jones anymore.
The Smith family - just no. I almost feel guilty for liking Jada in Collateral.
I had never realized until now that Willow, apart from a name of its own it's somehow Will+ow. Completely irrelevant I know, but it might have given us a clue of what was going to happen (= be like her father profesionally). :)
Robert G -- but why this early? I mean who else does that? Liza Minnelli's career didn't really start until she was 17. Madonna at least made Lourdes wait until she was about 13 or 14 (however old she is now) before beginning the push.
Troy -- yeah, that might be the issue of why it comes across so... ewww.
I'm leaning towards the same view as Robert G. on this, that if the kids themselves didn't crave the spotlight, that they wouldn't be in it. It should be noted that Will Smith has a son from his previous marriage, who is older than Jaden and Willow, and who is NOT in the industry. This suggests that neither Will or Jada are the stage parent monsters that some are making them out to be. If Will was hell bent on foisting his kids into the industry, that son would have been featured in a film a long time ago.
Ack! It appears that I must retract my previous statement - I just checked IMB, and it appears that Will's other son, Trey, worked in the industry as well. However, he isn't very prominent, which is why I was under the assumption that he never entered that arena. So, I was partly right. Trey hasn't worked that much in hollywood, and if the info on IMB msg boards are correct, he's more interested in sports than acting, rapping...etc.
So anyway, I still say that if Will was the stage parent freak that he's made out to be, he'd have pushed Trey harder, despite Trey's apparently lack of interest in the arts.
By the way, if my comments are muddled, forgive me. I'm posting on a near empty stomach, so it's hard to concentrate and be coherent!
Nathaniel, I begged my parents to whore me out to the industry but they refused. They didn't want to be seen as crazy stage parents. I had to go on auditions behind their backs, forge their signatures on consent forms, and then fight with them after being cast in a show Some kids just know what they want to do. Willow seemed happy enough when she was on Oprah as a co-host for the last "most talented kids in America" special and in the behind the scenes episode that aired a few weeks ago. Jaden's hasn't been attached to anything since The Karate Kid remake and Trey hasn't been performing regularly in years.
Part of me finds it bizarre.
The other part of me loves the Karate Kid remake and "Whip My Hair".
CONFLICTING EMOTIONS!
Oh let Willow have her shine. There's nothing wrong with that. No one's making you buy her songs or films.
The minute they said they were going to remake Annie the only thought in my head was "Who's playing Miss Hannigan?!" I don't have a problem with the Smiths or the idea of remaking this film in general, but that role has to go to someone DYNAMIC. It's a must.
Nat,don't sully you fabulous blog which is home to such worship of the bening,the moore,the pfeiffer,the streep,the dunst,the swinton,the winslet and many more!!!
this thing needs to to be ignored then maybe it,it's sibling and it's awful parents will just disappear.
iggy, that was intentional. Willow's named after Will, and Jaden's named after Jada. That's how the Smiths roll.
I blame Scientology for that entire family and every odd thing that they do.
THANK YOU so much for writing this, Nathaniel! I was a little bit late to the Willow Smith phenomenon, either out of ignorance or plain denial. When my friends claimed that there was an actual song called "Whip My Hair" performed by one of the Smith kids, I just didn't believe them...but oh, when I finally heard it, I knew I had already had enough.
I generally like(d) Will and Jada as a couple and found them really sweet, unpretentious, and gorgeous, but I have to agree that this constant publicity thrust for their kids is extremely oft-putting...I agree in regards to what you said earlier about Liza, and even other Hollywood kids like Gwyneth, Angelina, Anjelica Huston, Mira Sorvino, etc...none of them started working when they were still in their single digits, and actually waited until they were late teens/early 20s...I don't have kids and am not particularly savvy enough to give Will and Jada parenting advice, but I would think that most parents (particularly two that are uber famous), would want to give their kids a somewhat normal and un-Hollywood upbringing. When you are that young, you oftentimes DO NOT know what you want or aspire to be, even though you may be deeply interested or passionate about it at the moment. There's a huge difference in having an interest in acting or singing or whatnot and going to voice lessons/dance class to develop your craft and learn, rather than headlining a major motion picture. I'm guessing that the actors I mentioned earlier wanted to make their career decisions on their own terms without the influence or baggage of their famous parents, which is why they waited to they were a bit emotionally mature. Ugh, sorry for my incoherent rant.
I think they should cast a black woman in the part. I vote for Jennifer Lewis but Hollywood says Queen Latifah.
@/3rtfu11: Jennifer Lewis would be amazing as Miss Hannigan! I love Queen Latifah but...no, just no.
I hate their family, but I love Willow.
There. I said it.
I'm interested to see a black Annie.
If they cast a black Miss Hannigan, let's get Mo'Nique in a post Oscar role! hahah
I can understand the distaste they many are expressing over the Smith family and their kids being so prominently featured in the media. But Aaron, your comment about kids starting out too young in the industry isn't exactly accurate to me. Many famous actors actually started out very very young, and were able to segue into adult acting careers. Examples:
Christian Bale, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Anna Paquin, the Olsen Twins, Jodie Foster...etc.
Anyway, point being is that all of these actors started working in the industry before they hit their teens, and in some cases actually were working in their infancy. Of the aforementioned actors, only Barrymore, the Olsens, and perhaps Foster had stage parents.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that though it's true that kids often don't know what they want to do/be, sometimes they do. I think that people are just getting riled up and annoyed because in the case of the Smith kids, they have famous parents in the industry that are helping them out, or seem like they are being aggressively pushed to be spotlighted in the media.
I'm not a big fan of either Will or Jada, though I don't dislike them either. My sense though is that they're not publicity whores like the Lohan parents, and they aren't pushing their children into acting to try and benefit from it. I believe that they believe their kids have genuine talent, and are fostering their interests in the arts. And seriously, if their kids couldn't do the work (act, sing...etc), no studio head would greenlight these projects, no matter what the Smiths wanted.
I STARTED THIS TOPIC ON THE BLOG AND I HAVE TO REPLY TO THE PEOPLE WHOSAY "LET THE KIDS DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES WHAT THEY WANT" ... NOOOOO... WHAT IF THEY WANT TO DRINK LIQUOR AT THIS. AGE.. NOT GOOD FOR THEM.... TO ME YOU TEACH THEM WHEN IT IT IS TIME TO BE ABLE TO DRINK... THE SAME GOES FOR SHOW BIZ.... MOST KIDS ARE DESTROYED BY IT ( UNLESS THEY HAVE LEVEL HEADED PARENTS ) AND THE SMITHS SEEM ANYTHING BUT....
Thanks, Finn I didn't know that, really. I thought I was making a great discovery :) It's amazing they got away with the Scientology thing (rumors or whatever), with the homeschooling of their kids, but somehow they insist on giving something to be taliked about, to be Cruised by the press.
Finn -- Like Iggy, i hadn't realized the Jaden = Jada thing either. Ha. funny how obvious it is once someone points it out.
Another vote for Emma Thompson to start making movies more frequently again....I miss her like crazy. And while she's at it, she should write herself another really juicy part, in a film for adults (this isn't to say I didn't love both McPhee films, which I did)- none of these supporting parts will do! Though I must say from the one photo I saw of her in Men In Black 3, she looks like a totally hot badass, so I am looking forward to it.
As for the Smith kids... Didn't see Jaden's movie and didn't listen to Willow's song simply because they didn't interest me enough. That's all there is to it.