Hollywood star Will Smith told Esquire magazine that his teenage son, Jaden Smith, owns just one pair of shoes, three pairs of pants and five shirts. Will Smith said of Jaden, “He has refused to be a slave to money.” He said it’s interesting to watch his son and his lack of interest in materialism, compared to what it was like for Will growing up.
Will Smith says he came from a middle class background, He said he “grew up in a house where you would need the kerosene heaters in the winter in case the bills didn’t get paid.” Smith’s father owned a refrigeration company; his mother was a school board employee. At the age of 17, as a student at the elite Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, Will had a $20,000 car, a red IROC-Z. When asked if Will is enjoying money now? He quoted the film Lawrence of Arabia: “The Turks pay me a golden treasure, I am poor because I am a river to my people.” Smith said, “I just love that line. So I’m getting a T-shirt made: I AM A RIVER TO MY PEOPLE.”
