What is going on with Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith and their approach to homosexuality in films? If you do not know what I'm talking about, you're in for a wild ride. We are going to talk about both of these men not doing gay kisses in roles that seem to ask for a gay kiss. Will famously refused to do one, but what is Jaden's story about his "gay kiss" in The Get Down? I put "gay kiss" in quotations like that because, honestly, the kiss is implied. The camera cuts away as the boys get close. They essentially touch foreheads, smell each other's sweaty faces, and call it a day. Um...what? Why? Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this.
We have previously dug into this scene more in-depth in our Anatomy of a Scene series, but let me give you all a quick rundown. Will Smith starred in the 1993 film Six Degrees of Separation which was a takedown of Manhattan yuppies in the late 80s/early 90s. Will Smith and Lou Milione are caught in bed together by Lou's parents and it appears that Will is nude in bed, but he puts a pillow in front of his crotch so fast that you really do not see anything. It's not clear exactly what they were doing - was Lou just doing pushups on top of Will in bed? - but the implication is Gay Sex (trademark pending). While that is the implication, there is nothing overtly gay about this scene besides the fact that two men are in bed together. They were supposed to be kissing, but Will refused. Lou Milione gets naked in the scene and even appears to flaunt his cock and balls after he and Will are caught in bed together. Will apparently put on his clothes in a jiffy as he tries to calm his boyfriend down in this scene. Will not only wouldn't kiss this guy, but he would barely go nude with him.
But why didn't Will, an actor being paid to do this role, agree to just give his co-star a smooch? At this time, he was starring in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and his image was both cool and cookie-cutter clean. Will was not a "bad boy". He was sort of hip hop adjacent, but he was mostly a beloved comedic TV actor and a role model. That show was still on the air when they shot and released this film, so it is possible that Will wanted to keep his clean and cool image (until appearing in 1995's Bad Boys, of course). It is also possible that historical context is at play here. Sure, it was the early 90s, but things still weren't as open as they are now. AIDs was ravaging gay communities across the country. Paris is Burning and Madonna's "Vogue" put a spotlight on the ballroom scene in New York City and The Real World: San Francisco introduced America to a beloved gay icon. 1993 felt like it was on the verge of becoming more accepting, but it definitely still wasn't. Actors were still afraid of their image being tarnished or for people to start rumors about their sexuality (and there certainly have been some about Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but we are not in the business of rumors here. I'm only pointing that out to say that if that was what Will was nervous about, avoiding a gay kiss didn't stop those rumors from coming.). Another reason, however, is that Denzel Washington gave Will the advice to not do the kiss. We don't exactly know why he would say this, but that appears to be part of the working theory in this Hollywood legend.
So what about Jaden?
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The Get Down was an interesting one-season series on Netflix that was a sort of homage to the early days of hip hop and disco in the 1970s in New York City. Jaden Smith plays a graffiti artist named Marcus "Dizzee" Kipling who is a cool guy that seems incredibly progressive, woke, and spiritual. Honestly, that is sort of how I would describe Jaden, too. Jaden is a pretty spiritual-seeming guy who also likes to play with gender fluidity. He enjoys dressing up in skirts and dresses and has even famously flirted with the idea of dating men. Remember when he kept tweeting that Tyler the Creator was his boyfriend? We never got confirmation from Tyler about that, but he didn't really deny it either. Jaden's personal life can remain personal if that's what he wants - I'm not here to drag or out anyone - but I do think it's odd that someone who stands behind those kinds of ideas in his "personal life" won't act on them for literal paychecks ("personal life" is in quotations because he is a public figure, so it's sort of hard for public figures to have personal lives and I'm sure there is a difference between the personal life they are letting us see and the truly personal life they live and OH MY GOD IS THE MATRIX A DOCUMENTARY?). Like if countless other actors can be gay for pay, then why not someone who is publically teasing us that he might be gay? What is the harm in doing a single man-on-man kiss? It's not like Baz Lurhman was asking Jaden to strip and bend over. It was a smooch under a disco ball. We've all been there, done that for less money! It is WILD to me that they do not actually appear to kiss in this scene. What is the possible reasoning for this? Not only that, but when you google "Jaden Smith gay kiss" like any good investigator, you will find pictures of him possibly kissing a man in his real life. Again, I must ask, why won't he do it for money on a TV show that could inspire and give representation to young Black gay people? There's literally no harm in it! Instead, we just get hot men - who are not Jaden - hanging out shirtless in their undies.
What's weirder about this scene is that it is intercut with some female sexuality. We see an actual breast in this series, but we don't get to see any hints of homosexuality beyond two boys *checks notes* knocking foreheads (?). I don't have the answers to these questions. I do hope that Jaden hears our screams of frustration and decides to give another gay kiss a go. Hell, he might even go further than that, but I think with the Smith family we have to start small. Start kissing boys, boys! Get jiggy with it!
