Will Smith Pitched M. Night Shyamalan the Idea for His Box-Office Disappointment ‘After Earth’

Will Smith was once used to starring in blockbuster films with huge opening weekends. But he was worried that his winning streak in the film industry came to an end after doing the M. Night Shyamalan feature After Earth.

Will Smith pitched M. Night Shyamalan ‘After Earth’ for his son’s acting career

The 2013 feature After Earth was a change of pace for Shyamalan. The filmmaker was mostly known for his mind-bending thrillers and surprise twists, although there were a few exceptions in his filmography. After Earth would be one of them. It was a high-budget sci-fi feature taking place 1,000 years into the future. Smith and his son Jaden portrayed father and son in the movie.

Shyamalan shared with Telegraph that the movie came about after a phone call he had with Smith on Shyamalan’s birthday.

“He called me for my birthday and we talked about his son Jaden’s acting career and then he said, ‘I have this idea,’” Shyamalan said. “And he pitched me a 45-second version of a story that just clicked with me.”

Smith would only agree to star in the film if Shyamalan directed it. The filmmaker agreed to do the movie because of his fascination with the concept.

“I loved the idea of the traditional roles flipping and the boy having to save his father, and I just said, ‘I’ll make the movie. I committed there and then,” Shyamalan recalled. “Will thought I was joking but then he said he had originally intended it as a project just for Jaden but if I directed it he would play the father.”

However, After Earth didn’t do the business that Smith and Shyamalan hoped it would at the time. The movie was one of Smith’s lowest-performing films financially and received pretty negative reviews. The movie’s run would end up changing Smith’s approach to acting.

“A thing got broken in my mind,” Smith once said according to The Guardian. “It’s been an absolute necessity that the movie be a blockbuster, but I think I’m going to start moving out of that and finding more danger in my artistic choices.”

Why Will Smith considered ‘After Earth’ a bigger failure than ‘Wild Wild West’

After Earth wasn’t the only noticeable setback in Smith’s filmography. Years ago, the actor also starred in the notorious 1999 feature Wild Wild West. Similarly to After Earth, the movie didn’t meet expectations at the box office, and received very negative reviews from critics.

But Smith still considered Wild Wild West a better time than doing After Earth, if only because of his son Jaden.

“Wild Wild West was less painful than After Earth because my son was involved in After Earth, and I led him into it. That was excruciating,” Smith said in a 2015 interview with Esquire.

Jaden Smith asked Will Smith to be emancipated because of ‘After Earth’

Smith shared that a lot of the criticism against After Earth was aimed at Jaden Smith. Since Jaden Smith was the face of the movie, Smith shared it was difficult to watch his son take most of the blame for the Shyamalan film.

“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,” Smith wrote in his memoir Will .

This eventually led to Jaden Smith being asked to be emancipated. Smith understood his son’s feelings at the time, but that didn’t make the request hurt any less.

“We never discussed it, but I know he felt betrayed,” Smith said. “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.”