Post by -|E|- on Dec 12, 2006 8:50:44 GMT -5
Lately, everything's relative in Hollywood
December 10, 2006
BY CINDY PEARLMAN
Chicago Sun Times
Happyness is kicking your dad's can. Just ask 8-year-old Jaden Smith, who co-stars with his father, Will Smith, in "The Pursuit of Happyness," opening Friday.
"Jaden forever changed my approach to acting," insists his proud pop, who plays a desperate and determined father in the film.
"One day we're doing this scene and the director came over to give me a few notes. There were no notes for Jaden. My son looked at me and said, 'Dad, that's because you just keep doing the same thing every time.'
"I was a little offended," Smith says. "But then I realized that he was right. Jaden was just the character and he did something different depending on the moment. He wasn't the star. He wasn't the producer. He wasn't a movie star. He was just in the moment and he unblocked me in a major way.
"Eight weeks into shooting, I kept hearing, 'He's such a natural,'" Smith says. "It was true. He nailed moment after moment. I told Jaden, 'It's a good thing you're my son. You're stealing scene after scene from me.'"
The Smiths aren't the only blood relations working together in Hollywood these days. Julia Roberts just announced plans to work with her niece Emma Roberts in an upcoming drama called "Friday Night Knitting Club," based on the Kate Jacobs novel. Emma would play Julia's precocious teenage daughter. Michael Chiklis acts opposite his real daughter Autumn, who plays his little girl Cassidy in FX's "The Shield," which returns in January.
"It's a wonderful thing to have your child know about your work, although the one thing I do insist is that she's not around the rougher scenes," Chiklis says. "She's just a little girl and she doesn't need to see those things."
Emilio Estevez just directed his father, Martin Sheen, in "Bobby." He called it "One of the defining moments between me and my father."
Director Darren Aronofsky cast his real-life significant other Rachel Weisz in "The Fountain." Billy Ray Cyrus plays Dad to his real-life daughter Miley Cyrus in the hit Disney series "Hannah Montana." Meanwhile, Ben Stiller is planning to produce his wife Christine Taylor's new television series.
Sofia Coppola cast her cousin Jason Schwartzman in "Marie Antoinette."
"It wasn't a case of 'Oh, I want to hang around my cousin,'" she says. "I truly thought he was the best actor for the part."
Smith never planned for Jaden to co-star in a film with him.
"I'll never forget that one night ... I'm reading my script for 'Pursuit of Happyness,'" Smith says. "Jaden was listening to me tell him about the little boy in the film and all of a sudden he said, 'Daddy, I could do that.' I said, 'Oh really!'"
Smith says Jaden was used to being in front of the camera. "We shoot movie shorts of our family around the house," Smith says. "He knew 'action' and 'cut.'"
It was Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, who took their son on the auditions.
"There were about 100 kids being considered," he says. "Then it was down to 50 kids. When Jaden got down to 20 kids, it got my attention. When he was one of 10, it really got my attention. The director just fell in love with him."
Acting opposite family members is nothing new. The Douglas clan -- Kirk, his son Michael and Michael's son Cameron -- all teamed up to star in "It Runs in the Family." Michael Douglas says, "We always had it in the back of our minds to work together, and you get to the point where you think, 'Dad is getting older. What are we waiting for?'"
The fallout gave him deeper insight.
"I see my father as the father, but I was able to see him as the artist. It was the same thing for my son," says Douglas. "The box office wasn't the most important thing here. This is a memory for our family that will never go away."
Jane Fonda still has similar deep feelings about the classic "On Golden Pond," which starred her famous father, Henry Fonda.
"In many ways, my father and I were able to say many things to each other through the characters in the film that we were unable to say in real life," she says. "It was a cathartic experience."
Other family affairs include: Gwyneth Paltrow having her mother Blythe Danner play her mom in "Sylvia" and her late father Bruce Paltrow direct her in "Duets"; Sly Stallone casting his real-life son in "Rocky 5"; Antonio Banderas directing his wife Melanie Griffith in "Crazy in Alabama." And Tim Robbins directed his significant other Susan Sarandon all the way to an Oscar win for "Dead Man Walking."
"It was so important to us as a couple that one of my biggest professional achievements was done together," says Sarandon who admits that all that togetherness on the set did prove tough. "We actually lived apart for a little bit. It helped with the relationship."
Weisz did the same with Aronofsky for "The Fountain."
"We saw each other all day and Darren was so focused on the movie that it was best for him to have his nights by himself," she says.
When it's your child starring opposite you in a film, however, you can't drop them off at the Four Seasons and live apart.
Bruce Willis starred with is real-life daughter Rumer in the film "Hostage."
"The hard part of it was not giving any advice -- not that any was needed," he says. "I'll never forget doing a scene with her playing my daughter and she said a nasty word to me. As her father, I was taken aback and then you have to realize, 'Wait, she's the character in the movie saying this to me.' Honestly, her work astounded me. I just had to step back and let her do her thing." (Rumer Willis also worked with her mother, Demi Moore, years ago in "Striptease.")
Estevez says directing his father gave him new respect for his parental unit.
"My father was scheduled to do his scenes in 'Bobby' and then his good friend John Spencer died," Estevez says. "It was a very hard, emotional time for my father because he lost a good friend. I thought, 'Well, we won't get him to do this film. But there he was on my set, pushing aside his grief and doing his job. He told me that he was there for his son.
"That meant the world to me."
Smith says emoting opposite Jaden gave the tough scenes in the film new meaning.
"There is a scene where my character Chris walks down the steps of the subway to this bathroom that he stayed in with his son. The real Chris walked me down those steps. To shoot that scene in the bathroom with my real son in my lap -- well, no acting was necessary."
Smith says Jaden's world hasn't really changed much.
"Yes, he was on Oprah the other day and that was cool. But Jaden is really unaffected. He wants to act, but he also wants to play video games. He's just a kid."