Jaden Smith has been acting since 2003 when he was only five years old. Since then, he has been in quite a few movies including the 2018 movie Skate Kitchen. In the movie, he plays a skateboarder. This left many fans wondering if Jaden Smith can actually skate or if he was just acting.
Jaden Smith was not just acting in Skate Kitchen, he can actually skateboard. Although he has learned skills for certain roles, like learning Kung Fu for Karate Kid, that was not the case for Skate Kitchen. He did not learn to skate just for the film, he was an avid skateboarder beforehand.
Continue reading to find out more about Jaden Smith’s history with skateboarding and his role in Skate Kitchen.
Skate Kitchen
The film takes place in Long Island in New York City. It was based on a real group of female skateboarders who call themselves Skate Kitchen.
The real members of the skateboarding group play fictionalized versions of themselves in the film. As they are the real members of the group, most of the girls had no previous acting experience.
To counteract this, they spent eight months in acting classes prior to filming. Jaden Smith seems to be one of the only cast members with acting experience.
Even so, he only plays a minor role as a love interest to the main character played by Rachelle Vinberg.
He got the role in Skate Kitchen as he knew Rachelle beforehand. Jaden’s friend, musician Harry Hudson, wanted to introduce the two.
Jaden says that he skates with Harry when he is in New York and as Rachelle is also a skateboarder, Harry thought they would get along.
Jaden was hesitant, however, as he said, “I never did skate with her because she clearly skates so much better than me, you know?”
He ended up meeting her later on though and landed the role in the film. Jaden has said that he enjoyed his experience in the film because it was very different from his previous roles and he was able to just skate around New York.
Jaden has previously only acted in films when he was still quite young like in The Karate Kid when he was only eleven.
He says that this film was his first “young adult” film that is relevant to his life now as a young adult in skate culture.
Jaden Smith’s Other Projects
It may be surprising to some fans that Jaden had a role in Skate Kitchen because Jaden said in 2013 after filming After Earth that he wanted to focus more on his music rather than his acting career.
Skate Kitchen was actually the only film Jaden Smith has been in since After Earth. This is not for lack of opportunities either.
Jaden has said that he gets approached a lot for film or television roles, but he says, “I don’t necessarily get approached by things I am really excited about or are really serious.”
That is why he took the role in Skate Kitchen rather than other roles he has been offered. This one felt authentic to him because the character, a young skateboarder, was relatable.
Rather than acting in films, Jaden Smith has been in a couple of television shows including voice acting for Neo Yokio and The Get Down.
He is also still focusing on his music career instead. Jaden released two mixtapes in 2012 and 2014, titled The Cool Café and CTV2 respectively. He went on to also release two studio albums in 2016 and 2019, titled Syre and Erys.
So, when Jaden Smith is not acting in movies or television shows and not making music, he skateboards in his free time. He does not claim to be a professional skater and only skates leisurely.