“We will go down in history as one of the best to have ever done it.”
“That’s painful to watch,” he says.
“I knew everybody’s lines.
Credit: HBO Max
I would have played Uncle Phil.
I could’ve played Aunt Viv.”
“I said, ‘Quincy, I don’t know how to act, I’m not an actor.
Warner Media/HBO MAX
And I was like, ‘Give me 10 minutes.'”
Adds Smith: “It is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago, unfortunately.”
The towering actor who so memorably played Smith’s father figure, Uncle Phil,died in 2013.
“I wanted him to be proud of me.
Smith says that he flubbed his line in front of the studio audience and “my mind snapped.”
And the next take is the one that made it into the episode.
This memory leads to Smith tearing up and pulling out a tissue.
“Come on, don’t do this, Will,” he says.
“People don’t even know when they’re shaping you and forming you and crafting you.”
Reid, who played Avery’s wife, Vivian, interjected: “He knew.”
You’re Still My Aunt Viv
And now to the main event.
TheFresh Princecast has reunited many times over the years, but never with Hubert.
For the first three seasons, she played Will’s whip-smart, loving Aunt Vivian.
But the actress was replaced by Reid for the rest of the sitcom’s run.
Ever since, Hubert has expressed anger over her departure and belief that Smith was responsible.
“We never really, together, publicly talk about Janet.
He then played their honest and raw conversation.
“I just wanted to know one thing: Why?”
“You guys went so far.
I lost so much.
How do we heal that?”
Smith says it would be helpful for him to know her story.
“You have no idea,” she responds.
“It was insane.”
For her, it was an abusive marriage, which the cast didn’t know about.
“But I can see where I made the set very difficult for Janet.”
“I was hurt deeply,” she says.
“When I left the show, I had this new baby and no one.
My family said, ‘You’ve ruined our name.’
And I wasn’t unprofessional on the set.
I just stopped talking to everybody because I didn’t who to trust because I had been banished.
And they said it was you who banished me.
Because you were Will.
It was hard.”
Smith says that as a 21-year-old he felt like “everything was a threat” to him.
“I was so driven by fear,” he admits.
“I have children.
Retorts Hubert: “But you took all of that away from me with your words.
And it’s hard enough being a dark-skinned Black woman in this business.
But I felt that it was necessary for us to finally move forward.
And I’m sorry that I have blasted you to pieces.”
“You’re still my Aunt Viv,” he declared.
The duo ended by apologizing and embracing.
But the emotional reunion isn’t over!
With the permission of the rest of the cast, Hubert joined them on the set.
This marks the first time that Hubert and Reid have ever met.
Now that is the story all about howThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Aircast reunited in full.
