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Will Smith ‘might have gone too far’ in raising free-range kids, he says (He’s kidding. Well, mostly.)

Will Smith, left, Jaden Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith at the "Focus" premiere after-party.

Will Smith, left, Jaden Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith at the “Focus” premiere after-party.

(Kevin Winter / Getty Images)
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We all make mistakes. And Will Smith says he and wife Jada Pinkett Smith may have done just that in raising their children with very few boundaries.

"Yeah, I think it may have been a mistake," the "Concussion" star said on BBC Radio 1Xtra. "We may have gone too far."

Hey, he said it, not us! And he said it warmly, with a chuckle, in the Monday interview (which you can listen to below). So keep the sentiment in context.

"There's a really powerful internal quality as an artist that as parents we encourage," the actor explained. "You gotta get out on the edge. You have to try things. You have to be comfortable doing things people don't agree with, and you have to be comfortable doing things that you could fail."

So, yeah, Jaden Smith modeling women's clothing for Louis Vuitton? Or wearing a Batman costume to prom? Or likening himself to Galileo?

"Jaden is 100% fearless," the proud dad said of his 17-year-old son. "He will do anything."

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For the parents, of course, that's "scary, it's really terrifying," said the two-time Oscar nominee, whose oldest child, Trey Smith, is 23. "But he is completely willing to live and die by his own artistic decisions, and he just doesn't concern himself with what people think."

Willow, incidentally, isn't allowed to do exactly anything, even though the Smiths try to raise the kids with similar freedoms. Willow, you see, is a 15-year-old girl, and she does have a curfew. Apparently, the whole thing is a touchy subject at home.

"As a father, and the time I spend with the boys, when they go out, they're with six or seven dudes, right? So they have a small army when they go out," Smith said. "So their freedom is slightly different from Willow's. Willow's a 15-year-old girl, so we try to have the same rules, but it's a different world, you know?

"So we've been struggling with that."

Follow Christie D'Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.

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