It's a hard knock life for Will Smith. His 12-year-old daughter, Willow, decided to take a break from her career and dropped out of the upcoming film musical of Annie — even after he enticed her with Beyonce.
While attending "Real Talk with Sister Souljah and Will Smith" at Philadelphia's Temple University last weekend (via Global Grind), Will, 44, revealed why his daughter pulled out of the film, much to his chagrin.
"Willow was supposed to be doing Annie. We got Jay-Z to do the movie [and] got the studio to come in. [But] Willow had such a difficult time on tour with 'Whip my Hair' and she said, 'You know Daddy, I don't think so,'" the entertainer recalled. "I said, 'Baby, hold up! I said no, no, no. Listen, you'll be in New York with all of your friends and Beyonce will be there. You will be singing and dancing.' And she looked at me and said, 'Daddy, I have a better idea, how about I just be 12.'"
Will then realized that his little girl with wife Jada Pinkett Smith had a good point.
"I'm really learning through Willow the necessity that we have to snap ourselves back and refocus on the emotional needs of the people that we love," the father to Willow and sons Jaden, 14, and Trey, 20, shared. "Someone's emotional needs can be very very different from your dreams and what you think they should be doing and where they are supposed to be."
"The thing that had become very clear to me is the danger of a material world and focusing so hard on coming up with money or a house or a job," Will added. "You focus so hard on those things, and sometimes you can lose focus on why you are doing it in the first place. The only reason to do any of that is to have love."
But that doesn't mean that all of the Smith family abandoned show biz. Will and Jaden are co-starring in the upcoming action-adventure sci-fi flick After Earth, set to hit theaters this June.
