JoJo Siwa will no longer be starring in the Will Smith-produced film Bounce.
The movie, which was set to be slated to be produced by Smith’s production company, Overbrook Entertainment, and Paramount Pictures, will no longer feature the 18-year-old performer according to Variety.
Sources say that Siwa dropped out of the project “months ago” and her removal has nothing to do with Smith’s incident at the 2022 Academy Awards, where he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
“That project got put on hold, and then went away,” Siwa told Variety over the weekend. “It wasn’t the one.”
Siwa went on to urge how her exit from the project had nothing to do with Smith’s Oscars controversy, adding, “I normally stay out of all politics, it’s not my gig. But, I will say that being kind to one another is very important. I think that can go both ways, kindness.”
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Insiders also informed Variety that Paramount Pictures has removed the project from its development slate altogether.
Back in June of 2021, Siwa appeared on Entertainment Weekly‘s Pride digital cover, where she spoke on fame and coming out publicly as part of the LGBTQ community. In addition, she shared how a romantic scene between herself and a man needed to be removed from the film.
“I’m madly in love and I do not want to kiss another human. Especially because it’s a man,” Siwa told EW, adding how her fans most likely have trouble separating her persona from her on-screen character, Franny.
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“That’s what they look at me as, not some character, not some fictional thing. And so it’s going to be a little weird.”
“I’m not about it,” she went on about the kissing scene, adding, “I’m trying to get it pulled so bad. It’ll happen. It’ll get pulled.”
In that very same week, Siwa then updated fans that Paramount had agreed to cut the footage. “My friends at paramount and my friend Caleeb Pinkett are 1000% supportive of me and assured me that I don’t have to do anything I don’t wanna do ever!!!” the Nickelodeon star tweeted at the time.
“I’m so excited to make the movie ‘Bounce’ and couldn’t have better people to make it with!!????❤️.”
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