Willow Smith has explained that she quit the remake of iconic screen musical Annie thanks to her "intuition".
"To be honest, something inside me was just, like, 'Don't'," she told Teen Vogue. "I'm very connected with my intuition." The film was announced, with Smith attached, in early 2011, but her part was eventually given to Quvenzhané Wallis, the 10-year-old actor who became the youngest ever Best Actress Oscar nominee for her performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild, aged eight.
The film, about an orphan who is taken under the wing of a wealthy industrialist in a quest to find her parents – thus providing copious opportunity for emotive singing and dancing – was first a stage musical and then a successful movie in 1982. The remake co-stars Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz; its producers include Willow's parents, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as Jay-Z, who once famously sampled the musical's central Hard Knock Life number. It is released on Boxing Day.
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While her brother, Jaden, has pursued Hollywood like their parents, Willow has instead focused on musical extra-curricular activities (as well as a precociously hip wardrobe). After her hit single Whip My Hair in 2010, she's worked on much moodier tracks like piano ballad Drowning and atmospheric R&B jam 5 (featuring a rap from Jaden), and is currently writing a new album. "I have enough songs to make an album," she said, "but most of the songs I don't like ... [the album is] going to be something outlandish, something that nobody can imagine, something that comes from me and only me. Something we need right now."
Elsewhere in the interview, released in full on 15 July, she offers up the brilliantly raw and earnest opinions that only a 13-year-old can have. Of world peace, she says: "We all need to learn how to harmoniously live on this planet without frying it like those systematic French fries the government feeds us," while regarding homework she states: "Teacher: Why don't you have your homework? Me: Too busy learning about life."
