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Jaden Smith responds to the perception that he’s “crazy,” calls himself a scientist, and predicts no one will know where he is in 10 years in an intense new interview with GQ.
Smith has been famous all his life by virtue of his even more famous parents. And that’s just fine by him. In fact, the 17-year-old sees his fame as opportunity to teach people.
Referring to his sister, Smith says, “Me and Willow are scientists, so everything for us is a scientific test upon humanity. And luckily we’re put in a position where we can affect large groups of human beings at one time.” He tells the magazine about the “mystery school” he and his sister run, and explains that many of their statements to the media are “experiments,” in which they predict how people will react and wait to see if they’re right.
And that admittedly includes this interview, where Smith offers up a number of quote-worthy gems. But why? “It’s fun, bro. That’s what a lot of people don’t realize. It’s fun. It’s so much fun. It’s the best thing,” he says. “People think you’re crazy — I feel like it’s an honor, actually, for people to think I’m crazy. Because they thought Galileo was crazy, too, you know what I’m saying? I don’t think I’m as revolutionary as Galileo, but I don’t think I’m not as revolutionary as Galileo.”
Smith repeatedly stresses the value of an education, noting, “What I really encourage kids to do, is learn the things that you want to learn, because then not only will school become fun, but it will make your dreams come true.” He further says, “I rarely go to parties. My whole life is just dedicated on learning and breaking, like, the craziest records of life, and being like one of the craziest human beings to ever exist. That’s me.”
And though he’s currently home-schooled, college is on the agenda… presently and in the future. “I want to set up offices at MIT just so I can learn and bring in new technologies into the world. Definitely sit in on lectures in college. I’ve done that already. Like, go sit in that, you know, USC, UCLA, MIT, you know, anything I can get my hands on,” he says.
But that’s not all. Smith also wants to open up schools of his own. He tells GQ, “I’ll go to open schools, eventually, when I’m like 25 or something. Multiple schools. At the same time, around the world. So, like, two in the United States, two in Europe, two in China, India, Russia, Africa, all at the same time.”
Ambitious, yes, but Smith clearly isn’t expecting to get burnt out. “There’s no end of the process. Life is a process. At the end of the process, hopefully I’ll be dead, you know. Hopefully I just won’t be alive anymore,” he says. “But I won’t. Because that’s when the process will end. It’s an ongoing journey that you’ll never reach the end of. I’ll never read every single book, or go to every single place.”
All that said, asked to predict where he’ll be in 10 years, Smith answers, “Gone.” He explains, “No one will know where I am in ten years. They’ll see me pop up, but they’ll be like, ‘Where’d you come from?’ No one will know. No one will know where I’m at. No one will know who I’m with. No one will know what I’m doing. I’ve been planning that since I was like 13.”
“It’ll be kind of like Banksy. But in a different way. More of a social impact. Helping people. But through art installations. It’ll be like, ‘This just happened that helped a bunch of people over here. We don’t know who did it, but these symbols and things were left around, so we can only guess that it’s Jaden and the squad.’ You know what I’m saying?” continues Smith.
He adds, “So I’m just dedicating my whole life to helping the world.” Well then. TELL US: What do you think of Smith’s GQ interview?
