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Will Smith built a career out of blockbuster wins. But in a raw confession from his 2021 memoir Will, he admitted to creating one of his biggest personal regrets. The movie? After Earth. The fallout? It nearly wrecked his bond with his son, Jaden Smith.
At just 15, Jaden found himself at the center of a Hollywood flop that didn’t just bomb but hit him where it hurt. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring both Will and Jaden as a father-son duo surviving a post-apocalyptic world, After Earth opened to brutal reviews and a brutal box office. It made only $27 million in its debut weekend against a $130 million budget.
Will Smith took the heat in stride. Jaden Smith didn’t. “After Earth was an abysmal box office and critical failure,” Will wrote (via People). “And what was worse was that Jaden took the hit. Fans and the press were absolutely vicious; they said and printed things about Jaden that I refuse to repeat. Jaden had faithfully done everything that I’d instructed him to do, and I had coached him into the worst public mauling he’d ever experienced.”
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Before the fallout, Jaden had been riding high. He made his acting debut in The Pursuit of Happyness alongside his dad in 2006. That film crushed the box office and was Will’s sixth consecutive #1 opening. By 2010, Jaden headlined The Karate Kid remake, pulling in $3 million and showing he could hold his own. But After Earth changed everything.
The pressure and public backlash pushed Jaden Smith to a breaking point. According to Will Smith, the young actor seriously considered legal emancipation. “We never discussed it, but I know he felt betrayed,” the Men in Black star continued. “He felt misled, and he lost his trust in my leadership. At fifteen years old, when Jaden asked about being an emancipated minor, my heart shattered. He ultimately decided against it, but it sucks to feel like you’ve hurt your kids.”
The request hit hard. It wasn’t just about contracts or creative control. It was about trust. And Will, who thought he was guiding his son to greatness, realized he had instead led him into a storm. Despite the damage, Jaden rebounded. He chose to stay with the family and, years later, returned to the screen with Life in a Year in 2020, starring alongside Cara Delevingne. Will, meanwhile, found success again in Aladdin (2019) and Bad Boys for Life (2020).
After Earth remained as a painful memory. For Will Smith, it was more than a flop. It was a hard lesson in parenting, fame, and fallout. And for Jaden Smith? It was the role that almost made him walk away from it all.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood News
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