Jada Pinkett Smith ducks Karate Kid role to play mom

[HMG] – Every mother likes to be close when their child takes their first steps, but Jada Pinkett Smith says she rejected the chance to star with her son, Jaden Smith when he got his first leading role in ‘The Karate Kid.’ remake.

The 38-year old actress, who has been married to ‘Men in Black’ actor Will Smith since 1997 says she did not want to be her 12-year old son’s mom off-screen and on.

“There was talk about me playing Jaden’s mother in the movie but I felt he was going to need his mom off camera,” she tells Digital Spy. “We felt we had to be there as parents and producers to make sure Jaden was taken care of.”

Jaden got his first role in the 2006 film ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ — alongside his dad, and that won him an MTV Movie Award for ‘Best Breakthrough Performance.’ He’s also acted with Keanu Reeves in ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still,’ presented awards at the Oscars and even rapped with Justin Bieber in “Never Say Never.” So this is no rookie.

But to mom he’s a 12-year old kid.

“We knew we had to participate in some way,” muses Jada. “We have so much knowledge that we want to pass on to our children. So we knew it was important to participate.”

And Jaden really prepped for the role:

“I had a lot of training, so it was not as hard as I thought it would be,” he casually recalls. “I trained for all of it, and it just came to me. I could almost have fun when I was filming.”

The original ‘Karate Kid’ was one of 1984′s most successful films, and Jaden’s role in the remake as ‘Dre Parker’ even impressed his co-star and martial arts legend, Jackie Chan.

“After the movie I tell his parents, ‘Let him stay in China for three months’,” Chan tells reporters. “Trust me. I will take care of him. I tell Will Smith, ‘Can I adopt your son?’ That’s how much I love him!” he explains with a grin.

But Will was still worried — Jaden’s movie earned $56-million in its debut weekend, and his dad doesn’t like competition:

“The film’s three-day box office was bigger than almost any of my movies!” he explains “I’m wondering if he still needs to even live at our house,” jokes Will.

The Karate Kid debuted on June 11, and still playing in several theaters nationwide…