Actress Janet Hubert tells Davina Morris about trying to move on from her painful Fresh Prince past
THE Fresh Prince of Bel-Air came to an end over a decade ago. But for actress Janet Hubert, it’s almost impossible to escape the legacy of the much-loved US sitcom.
Having played the role of Vivian Banks, Hubert won a legion of fans who loved her portrayal of the headstrong wife, mother and aunty. And even now– despite her having let the show and her role being taken over by actress Daphne Maxwell Reid– Hubert is still considered by many to be the real Aunt Viv.
But since her departure from the show, many stories emerged about a supposed off-screen rift between Hubert and Fresh Prince star, Will Smith. Some reports even alleged that Smith– who played Hubert’s troublesome nephew– was responsible for getting Hubert fired from the show.
But here, in an exclusive interview, Hubert gives her own account of what went on when the cameras stopped rolling. And she paints a desperately sad tale.
She describes the backlash she received after leaving the show as “horrendous.” After leaving the show, she reveals that she lost her home, her business, her marriage, and perhaps worst of all, the professional reputation she’d worked so hard to build over the years.
With that in mind– plus the fact that she’s keen to focus on her current business venture, which aims to inspire young children– is it frustrating that people still want to associate her with Fresh Prince?
“It is when people don’t wanna let you move forward,” admits the re-married mother-of-one. “But at the same time, that experience opened doors for me. Because of that experience, you called me.”
“But I get upset when people write lies. I had one woman tell me that the reason I left the show because I was pregnant. That was not the case and I don’t ever want my son to think that he was the reason why I lost a job.”
“The real reason I left– it was a contractual thing. It was definitely inspired internally, but it was basically a case of my salary being cut by more than half. I was offered 10 weeks of work out of 27 weeks, and told that I couldn’t work anywhere else. How could I work with that? How was I supposed to survive? So I said no– and they didn’t re-negotiate. That was it. They didn’t come back and say, ‘Ok, how about 12 weeks?’ They just left it. It was as if they were saying, ‘Take this bone, lady.’”
Hubert feels that the network were happy enough to let her walk because they deemed her as being “too outspoken.” She admits that she took her role seriously and felt that the show should “be responsible with the content we put out,” particularly as its audience was largely made up of young people.
But by the time her role was nearing its end, the show had gone through management changes, which, according to Hubert, resulted in “too much control” being given to the show’s star. From there, Hubert explains that her relations with Smith went from bad to worse…
“When [the show’s creators] Andy and Susan Borowitz and [executive producer] Winiford Herby left the show, everything fell apart,” says Hubert. “When they left, the values of the show left with them. At that point, I think Will was allowed to have a little bit too much control. At the time, he was a young man and he wasn’t qualified to have that kind of control. I was 37 at the time and my values were very different to those of a 22-year-old man.”
“We got to a point where I had to start checking in with this 22-year-old, as opposed to pleasing the director– which is how it should be. But ultimately, Will was the star and eventually, the network sold me out.”
She continues: “Nobody ever doubted that he was the star of the show. That was never an issue. But a star also has to be gracious. On the set, he was very gracious. But behind the scenes, he was very cutting to me. That was awful because it affected both me and my family. My name is all I have. And for people to chastise my family members for my legacy, that’s wrong.”
Things may have been a little rocky between Hubert and Smith on set when the cameras weren’t rolling. But she explains that it was after she left the show that things really got bad– and she holds Smith responsible for sparking the backlash she went on to receive…
“Some of the public were just awful,” she recalls. “Once, this woman was sitting behind me and I heard her chastise me to death, saying, ‘Oh I heard she was a b*tch’ and this and that. People wrote things and made things up about me– it was awful.”
“I heard that after I left the show, there were thousands of letters of support for me. But in order for them to let the show continue, they couldn’t let it be known that public opinion was going on my side. So Will went out on a nationwide smear campaign against me. And when someone coins you difficult… everybody knows the poison of that word. He went to all of our major markets and just obliterated me because he needed to win. At that time, Will was extremely competitive.”
“After that, I lost my house, I lost my business, I had no money to live on, I lost my vocal chords in an incident that was related to all of that, I lost so much weight… We were left with nothing. There were times when my son didn’t even want people to know that I was his mother. You have to remember, kids loved that show and they loved Will. So to them, I really was the bad person.”
“But one of the worst things to happen was an article I saw that claimed that six months after I had my son, I started stalking Will. When I saw that, I literally fainted.”
“I feel that Will owes me an apology. And I just want to know why– why he did the things he did? But I guess if he regretted it, he would reach out and apologise.”
One wonders what Hubert’s fellow Fresh Prince cast members had to make of her departure from the show.
“Joseph Marcell [who played Geoffrey, the family’s butler] was the only person who wouldn’t lie about me for the network. I don’t think Karyn [who played Hubert’s daughter, Hilary] got involved either. But ultimately, people want to get paid. They weren’t about to risk their jobs by sticking up for me. Black people don’t stick up for each other! We as a people love to beat up on each other when something goes wrong. Which black woman in Hollywood is ever defended?”
“Karyn and I worked together years later but it was hard because we hadn’t spoken since Fresh Prince. James [who played Hubert’s husband, Philip] reached out to me at a function one year, but again, it was hard. Everybody comes from Hollywood and Hollywood doesn’t breed true friendships. That’s why I love being back on the East Coast. People here don’t give a damn about the industry.
People here have real jobs! My husband is a mechanic. We don’t live this glamorous life. I tell people: ‘I played a rich woman, I’m not a rich woman.’”
While Hubert admits that there are times when it still hurts to re-live some of those past experiences, she certainly doesn’t come across bitter. Instead, she sounds like a woman desperate to move on with her life. This is why she kindly agreed to do this interview– to tell her side of the story.
But the more obvious next step– that Hubert has considered– is to publish a book that details her experiences. The book is already written. Entitled Murder of a Sitcom Motha, Hubert penned it for her son (who’s now 15), so that he could read her account of what went down. She says that her son hasn’t read the book and that he doesn’t really need to. Writing it provided a means for her to express her pain. She never intended to publish it– until now. But it’s not a decision she’s taking lightly.
“I feel that I’m gonna have to publish this book, in order to move on. When I walk into a room, there’s a presupposed idea that I’m a b*tch. I can’t get movies with [director] Tyler Perry because I’ve been branded a difficult b*tch. That’s what people think of me. My son thinks I should publish the book and he’s my guide.”
“Both my father and my brother died with their names blemished, because of the things that people were saying about me. So I want my own name cleared. But I’m torn. Would it make me just as bad as Will to put something out there that would mean that his children would have to hear bad things about their dad?”
“And I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to bring him down. There are always the haters who’ll say, ‘Oh, there goes a black woman trying to bring a brother down’. But that’s not the case. I just want to be able to move on.”
Now, her focus is firmly on her initiative for children, JG and the BC Kids. Currently promoted through a range of back-packs and lunch bags, the project centers around a fictional young black character who solves a mathematical equation and goes on to open a portal where an adventure begins. Hubert is eventually hoping to turn her idea into an animated series.
“I’m really focusing on inspiring children,” she says. “My son was my inspiration. I started working on this when he was about five and he’s now 15, so it’s taken a long time! But I’m really passionate about it.”
“I’ve found, as a mother, that there’s a presupposition amongst many, that black children are not bright children. The only times we see young black kids reflected on a wide scale, is when they’re ‘ghetto’ or they’re playing basketball or they’re dead historical figures.”
“When I went out to shop for my son, I could never find things that I wanted for him. I didn’t want him to know about old dead heroes– especially now, with what’s happening with Obama. This is a perfect time for our young men to see a real role model. I want my products to help to inspire young minds.”
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=14397