Jaden Smith has said he was aware of the pressures of fame before he could even speak.
The 23-year-old son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, who runs fashion label MSFTSrep, grew up in the public eye and made his film debut aged eight.
He told MR PORTER digital magazine: “People were following me around when I was in a stroller. Before I could speak, I could feel the presence of people I didn’t know who were interested in me.”
Smith, who has courted controversy with his remarks on conspiracy theories, said he is an “ambassador” for people who believe in them and even asked former President Barack Obama about them.
He said: “We were in the Situation Room in the White House and I was choking up. I was about to not ask the question, but my dad wanted to show that he was going to support me, so he was like, ‘President Obama, my son has a question.’
“And then Obama just goes, ‘He wants to know about the aliens?’ We didn’t even ask! The fact that he already knew what I was going to say, it really said a lot to me. He said, ‘I can’t confirm nor deny the existence of extra-terrestrial life.’”
Smith said MSFTSrep’s latest collection, called Trippy Summer, is inspired by his own experience with psychedelic mushrooms and is “not just clothes to sell”.
He said: “It’s loaded with spiritual experiences and mystical states. We’re just making clothes that can go along with people’s journeys.”
He said he wanted the clothes to be for people who felt out of place, adding: “It’s still about misfits changing the world – being able to stand up for those kids that are getting beat down.”
* Read the full interview at www.mrporter.com.
