Aunt Viv of ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ Says Jada Pinkett Just Salty Because Will Smith Wasn’t Nominated

Not everyone can get with Jada Pinkett’s Oscars boycott. Pinkett proposed a boycott of the awards show due to the lack of representation for non-white people. That’s one way to show unhappiness at the show. Janet Hubert, who used to play Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, doesn’t see it that way.

Hubert thinks Pinkett’s mad that husband Will Smith wasn’t nominated for Concussion. She posted a video online where she goes in on Pinkett and Smith.

She starts off by saying, “Does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?” Mm hmm. Kinda true. Will Smith isn’t gonna bite the hand that feeds. He’s got the personality of Teflon. Opaque and without substance.

Hubert continued:

“Girlfriend, there’s a lot of s**t going on in the world that you all don’t seem to recognize. People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are hungry, people are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you’re talking about some motherfucking actors and Oscars. And it just ain’t that deep. And here’s the other thing — for you to ask other… black actors to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well you don’t do that. And here’s the other thing, they don’t care.”

Ehh, yea, I agree, but that’s too easy to say there’s bigger things to worry about. That’ll always be a reason, there’ll always be bigger things to worry about unless you’re talking about nuclear war or the survival of our civilization. Does that mean you don’t speak up and talk about anything else? It does not.

Later, she says Pinkett needs to stop crying just because Smith didn’t get an Oscar nomination.

“I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and has made millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you’re talking about boycotting just because you didn’t get a nomination, just because you didn’t win? That’s not the way life works, baby.”

More barbs at Will Smith:

“Maybe you didn’t deserve a nomination. I didn’t think, frankly, you deserved a Golden Globes nomination with that accent, but you got one. And just because the world doesn’t go the way you want it to go, doesn’t mean you can go out and start asking people to stand up and sing We Shall Overcome for you.

Actually, I never though that Pinkett was doing this for Will Smith until now. Maybe this IS about Will Smith.

I like this next line:

“You ain’t Barack and Michelle Obama. And you all need to get over yourselves. You have a huge production company that you only produce your friends, your family, and yourself. So you are a part of Hollywood, you are a part of the system that is unfair to other actors, so get real!”

If there’s a Barack and Michelle Obama in Hollywood, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett would be it. If Michelle Obama was a lesbian that is. Alleged lesbian.

Good points by Hubert. At the same time though, she may have an axe to grind. A two decades old axe.

Hubert played the original Aunt Vivian on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She got replaced after one season. Supposedly, Smith said her ego got in the way.

Smith told an Atlanta radio station in 1993, mid-original-controversy, “I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel Air Showbecause 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.”

Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks, seconded Smith’s opinion. During a 2009 comedy set, he touched on Hubert’s attitude.

“You know, legally I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Ribeiro continued. “But hey, why not? Basically, at the end of the day, the [he bleeped himself] was crazy. I did not curse…She went nuts! 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.”

Hubert’s side is that Smith didn’t stand together with her when she wanted all of the cast of Fresh Prince to get a raise.

“I seem to recall, twenty-maybe-six, -seven years go—25, whatever it was—I don’t even remember. I seem to remember at option time coming to you and saying, ‘You know what, Will? You’re the star of the show. Why don’t we all get together and, with you, maybe we could get a little raise? Maybe the network since the show is, you know, such a hit and you being the star of the show, your influence would help us greatly, like they did on Friends. Like white shows do!’ Remember that? Do you remember that, ’cause I do. Mmm.

“And your response to me was, ‘My deal is my deal and y’all’s deal is y’all’s deal. Well karma must be a bitch because now here you are.”

Man, if Guns N’ Roses can reunite after 20 years, so can the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

https://youtu.be/N9eY-kKXBnQ