Fresh Prince star was 'blacklisted' and 'lost everything' after fallout with Will Smith
The original actor behind Aunt Vivian from The Fresh Prince of Bell-Air was ‘blacklisted’ from Hollywood and had a public falling out with the show’s star Will Smith.
Janet Hubert starred as the iconic TV character for the first few seasons of Fresh Prince, being replaced in seasons four to six by Daphne Maxwell Reid.
Aunt Vivian was a vital part of the show, taking Will in alongside her husband ‘Uncle Phil’, and arguably being one of the three or four most important characters in the show.
For fans tuning in to watch season four in a time before social media and finding Aunt Viv played by a totally different actor it was a major shock – and became a huge talking point amongst fans.
Will Smith and Alfonso Ribeiro bad-mouthed Hubert publicly, and she hit back at Smith years later
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It was widely reported shortly after she left the show that she had been fired, with Smith and his co-star Alfonso Ribeiro both bad-mouthing Hubert in the press and blaming her for ‘bringing her problems to set’.
In a radio interview from the time of her departure, Will Smith said: “I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show because I know she is going to dog me in the press. She has basically gone from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing. She's mad now but she's been mad all along.
“She said once, 'I've been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.' No matter what, to her I'm just the Antichrist."
Ribeiro meanwhile said in a stand-up set that she was ‘not so great’ to work with, adding: “Long story short, and there were days when we were all on the set and she would literally go off on people and they got to a point by the time the second season came around where we're like, 'This is unacceptable.'
"We felt like, when we were doing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that we were a family…She, at that point, ruined that, and she made it very difficult for us to work, and unfortunately she was then fired. They brought in Daphne Maxwell-Reid, who we absolutely loved, and we moved on. Oh well."
Shortly after Smith’s comments Hubert accused Smith of making colourist jokes on set and being responsible for her firing, publicly hitting out at him in 2011 when he posted a reunion photo of the cast, minus her. She told TMZ: “There will never be a reunion ... as I will never do anything with an a**hole like Will Smith.
“He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up. This constant reunion thing will never ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which he doesn't know the word.”
Smith and Hubert later reunited and buried the hatchet
Hubert has spoken out in the years since to say that she regrets her TMZ quotes and that the interview came shortly after her mother’s death. She has also hit back at claims she was fired, stating she turned down a contract after being told it would require her to agree to not work on any other shows.
In a reunion show filmed in 2020 Hubert admitted that she had been both pregnant and in an abusive relationship at the time, telling Smith directly: “What you didn’t realize either is that I was going through a lot at home… you didn’t know. You guys didn’t know, a very abusive marriage.
“Words can kill. I lost everything. Reputation. Everything. Everything. I understand you were able to move forward, but you know those words—calling a Black woman difficult in Hollywood is the kiss of death. It’s the kiss of death. It’s hard enough being a dark-skinned Black woman in this business. But I felt it was necessary for us to finally move forward—and I am sorry that I have blasted you to pieces.”
Smith admitted that he ‘wasn’t sensitive’ or ‘perceptive’, suggesting he was 21 and thought that ‘everyone was a threat’, saying: “I didn’t know, but when I look back now, it’s obvious you were having a hard time. I felt like you hated me. I could not do a 30-year celebration of this show and not celebrate you. Celebrate your contribution to this show and celebrate your contribution to my life.”
Hubert finally added: “I have to say, after 27 years, being here today and having the conversation that Will and I had together, it’s healing,” she explained during a solo interview. “I don’t know if it’s real. I feel like this is a dream. I didn’t come here to have animosity. I came here to resolve because it’s time.”
Topics: TV and Film, TV, Celebrity, Will Smith
Michael Slavin