"The kid" won't turn 12 until July. But he's his old man's son. Jaden Smith has a wisecrack at the ready when asked about how absurdly ripped he got for his new film, the remake of "The Karate Kid."
"Hey man, you know, I gotta keep it nice for the ladies, you know?" He laughs. "Learned THAT from Jackie!"
"Jackie" would be Jackie Chan, the world-famous, world-wise martial arts comic who is Jaden's co-star in "The Karate Kid." The remake, reset in Chan's China, has Jackie as Mr. Han, a reclusive building superintendent who teaches the bullied Dre (Jaden) martial arts. But did that mentoring extend to off camera, say, when Jaden — son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith — got his first screen kiss?
"He didn't give me too much advice, not good advice, anyway," Jaden teases. Chan is sitting right next to him. "But my dad? He did. He said, 'Don't KISS with your MOUTH open!' Definitely too young for that."
They've got this Jackie-and-Jaden act down pat. Give them a hard time about this new "Karate Kid's" two hours and 15 minutes running time.
"The movie's not long enough? Come on, Jaden, let's do a song. 'Wiiiise men say, ooooonly fools rush in...." Chan, 56, has had a pop-star career in China. And Jaden's dad cranked out some hit singles in his day. But the kid isn't having it and won't pitch in. Which makes Chan's next point for him.
"Every child should learn martial arts, any martial art — karate, judo, aikido, Chinese kung fu," Chan says. "If they do, they will respect themselves, their parents and others. They will respect life, everything. You don't learn that discipline, that self-respect, you could be just another wild kid on the streets, a bully. Martial arts can teach you right from wrong."
Did Jaden learn any R-E-S-P-E-C-T from making this movie, which his parents produced?
"Here's the respect I learned from martial arts. I realized how lucky I was to be their son."
Amen to that. Smith has the major motion pictures "Pursuit of Happyness" (with his dad) and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (with Keanu Reeves) and now a "Karate Kid" under his belt. And he's still only 11. He loved learning martial arts, "especially that high-stretch kick."
The very first review (Cinema Blend) of his latest film notes that "the kid holds his own." Jaden can talk about how he's chosen acting as a "career," but again, he's just 11. Things change. But Chan is frank about where this new film places him.
"I want to continue to make movies. But how can I continue fighting in movies? I am getting older. I have always wanted to be a true actor, so this is the time to do that. I want to be the Asian Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman. I always have.
"A true actor can play all kinds of characters, and that's what I want to do. I want the world to see an actor who can fight, not a fighter who can act.
"So 'The Spy Next Door' was a comedy. This film is more serious. And I am doing very serious things in 'Chinese Zodiac,' a kind of Indiana Jones movie (which he is directing). Lots of action. Then I'll do a drama. Maybe one day, I get a love story, kissing scenes on the beach, singing a song. You know, real actor stuff."
He laughs. Chan longs for that day when he meets a stranger on the street, and that meeting is different from the thousands of other times he's recognized in public.
"'Look, Jackie Chan!' And then they do something with their hands, not quite kung fu. 'Aaaaahhhh-yaaaa!' Why? Nobody does that with Robert De Niro."
And Jaden Smith? Spending months in China shooting a movie with Jackie Chan led to a running gag in the movie. Lots of Chinese folk wanted to touch the African-American kid's hair, in long cornrows for the movie.
"Man, people want to touch my hair when I'm in the States!" he complains. "It's worse here than it was there."
"I wanted to cut it, use the scissors the whole time we were shooting," Chan fires back. "'Come on. Just a snip snip.' But his dad was there. He wouldn't have it."
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.