Will Smith Says Beef With Aunt Viv Actress Was ‘Horrible Mistake’
“I made a horrible error and misjudgment of her value and power and beauty to the show,” Will Smith says in the latest episode of Vice’s Black Comedy in America about his beef with Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star Janet Hubert, via People. “I horribly underestimated what she was for me at that point in my life.”
It’s all good now, but as sitcom feuds go, Will Smith vs. Janet Hubert was an all-timer. Hubert left Fresh Prince after three seasons of playing Aunt Viv over “creative differences” and an alleged offer of a “bad deal.” She was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid. But Hubert made sure everyone knew she believed Smith was the problem, not a low-ball contract.
After leaving the show, Hubert called the Men in Black star an “egomaniac” who ruined her career, refusing to entertain the idea of ever reconciling with the show’s cast. "There will never be a reunion as I will never do anything with an asshole like Will Smith," Hubert said in 2011, according to Complex. “He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up."
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Smith blamed Hubert for the lost role during an interview with an Atlanta radio station. “I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show,” he complained. “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.”
What caused Smith’s turnaround? After decades of rancor, the two entertainers finally kissed and made up in 2020, just in time for a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 30th reunion on Max. During the show, the two talked out their differences.
“Something I would like to clarify is, during that third season, when I got pregnant, there were a lot of things going on in my life, and in Will’s life as well,” Hubert said during the anniversary special. “There was some friction because I was pregnant, home life was not good at all. I was no longer laughing, smiling, joking, because there were things going on that nobody knew about. The cast had no idea what was going on.”
Smith was also contrite. “I wasn’t sensitive, I wasn’t perceptive, and you know, now that I’ve had three kids, I’ve learned some things that I did not know at the time,” he confessed. “And I would do things very differently.”
One reason Hubert was so angry? Her unexpected departure from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air branded her as a difficult actress, making new acting jobs difficult to come by. She called it “the kiss of death” for her career. It might not be fair to blame Smith for that reputation, but Hubert felt like he was the guy “who banished me.”
“When I look back now, it’s obvious that you were having a hard time. And I felt like you hated me,” Smith said during the reunion. “I could not do a 30-year celebration of this show and not celebrate you, celebrate your contribution to this show, celebrate your contribution to my life.”
