Willow Camille Reign Smith arrived on Halloween night in the year 2000, to father Will Smith and mother Jada Pinkett Smith. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Willow is the youngest of three children and has always gravitated towards the spotlight. In a 2007 chat with Collider, Will Smith revealed that Willow was inspired to act at just 6 years old after seeing her brother Jaden’s first performance on the big screen. “I think a big part of it is probably Jaden. After ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ and she saw what Jaden did, she thought, ‘I want that.'” However, her father admits that despite the talent that runs in the family, Willow’s charisma and confidence is all Willow. “You kind of don’t work with Willow, you work for Willow,” the Oscar winner joked. “With Willow, she just loves it … She just wants it, she has a drive, an energy, and she just connects to human emotion.”
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In 2008, Willow made her feature film debut as Countee in “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery” alongside Abigail Breslin. Shortly after, rumor spread that she would be in the modern remake of “Annie,” but she declined the offer due to her “intuition,” as she explained to Teen Vogue in 2014. “To be honest, something inside me was just, like, ‘Don’t’. I’m very connected with my intuition.” The film was announced in early 2011 with Willow as the lead, but the role eventually went to Quvenzhané Wallis.
