The pop star has opened up about her father’s role-selecting process in a new interview.
ByJaelani Turner-Williams
September 23, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Willow Smith said her father, Will Smith, rejected emotionally heavy acting roles because he did not want to bring their “energy” home to his family.
- During Kid Cudi’s Big Bro podcast, Willow said actors must fully embody intense characters and can struggle to detach from them afterward.
- Smith previously described method acting in 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation as an emotional burden and famously passed on Django Unchained, The Matrix, and Inception.
Willow Smith has revealed that her father, Will Smith, has declined emotionally heavy acting roles in the past as he didn’t want to bring the “energy” that came with them around his family.
The Academy Award-winning actor was briefly brought up on the latest episode of Kid Cudi’s Big Bro podcast during a discussion Willow and Cudi were having about emotionally taxing projects.
“My dad has specifically said no to certain roles because he felt like the energy was too heavy to be bringing into the house,” Willow revealed around the 55-minute mark of the video below. “Like, ‘Nah, I’m not even gonna touch that because I don’t want to be <a href="https://comicvibe.com/comic-con-india-is-coming-to-jalandhar-for-the-first-time-this-november/” title=”Comic Con India Is Coming to Jalandhar for the First Time This November”>coming home to my family in this.'”
“That’s a deep one. You really have to embody it if you’re doing it right,” the 25-year-old added.
In his 2021 memoir, Will, the Men in Black star recalled his earliest drama role, playing Paul in 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation,explaining how the movie, in which he utilized method acting techniques, was an emotional burden during his first marriage to Sheree Zampino.
The ex spouses would divorce in 1995 after three years of marriage, and two years later, Smith married Jada Pinkett Smith.
Smith famously turned down multiple roles in projects that would ultimately become blockbuster hits, including Django Unchained, The Matrix, and Inception.
Although Smith turned down the lead role in Djangobecause he considered it a “vengeance story,” per The Hollywood Reporter, he’d later star as an enslaved man, Peter, in 2022 historical drama Emancipation.
