Will Smith took time off for family

6 December 2018

Will Smith had to take "two years off" of work when he realised his family "wasn't happy" with the direction he was heading in.

Will Smith

The 50-year-old actor helped his family achieve huge success between 2010 and 2012, with his daughter Willow topping the charts with 'Whip My Hair', his son Jaden starring in 'Karate Kid', and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith acting in TV series 'Hawthorne'.

And whilst he believed his family were "winning", it wasn't until Willow, now 18, stood up to him and "shaved her head bald" in a protest against her hit single and chart success, that he realised his family was unhappy.

Speaking to Haute Living magazine, he said: "One of the major things that happened is that I hit that midlife-crisis point, where I've built all of the things I've ever dreamed of. And in my family - 2012 I secretly call the year of the mutiny. And 2012 was really the year that my family rejected the direction of my leadership.

"Willow was really the first person during 'Whip My Hair' that decided she didn't want to do what I said," Smith said. "Because she was the baby girl, she really had the most power over me. As a man - if your daughter says no, there's really nothing you can do.

"She really tested me. She was like, no she didn't want to. She was done with 'Whip My Hair.' She was done with performing, and as a protest, she shaved her head bald.

"That was really the first time that I realised that my family wasn't happy with the direction that I was taking them. I felt like I was winning. We were succeeding.

"We had 'Karate Kid'. We had 'Whip My Hair.' Jada had 'Hawthorne,' and we hosted when Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize - we hosted all of that in one year. I felt we were doing well, and my family wasn't happy. So, I took two years off."

Will's comments come after Willow recently reflected on her time in the spotlight, and said she had to "forgive" her parents for pushing her into fame when she was just 10 years old.

She told her mother: "I definitely had to forgive you and daddy for that whole 'Whip My Hair' thing. It was mostly daddy because he was so harsh at certain times. It was a couple of years, honestly. Trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was being listened to or like no one cared how I felt."