Will Smith, Tatyana Ali, and many cast members from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air all created incredible moments for their reunion special. However, fans weren’t just clamoring for the cast to come together for a one-off. They wanted the cast to star in a lengthy revival series. However, Ali once felt another Fresh Prince sequel was unlikely because of Smith’s feelings on the matter.
Tatyana Ali on what changed the most about Will Smith over the years
Ali couldn’t have had nicer things to say about her experience working on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She and her cast-mates became a family after so many years working together. In a resurfaced interview with Smashing, Ali confided what it was like to work with the sitcom’s main star Smith. Although she asserted he always had a natural magnetic charisma, Ali shared that he came a long way as far as acting was concerned.
“Oh, my gosh. He is a force,” Ali said. “When we first started working on Fresh Prince, he would mouth the words. He would memorize the entire script and mouth the words that I was saying. It was because he was remembering when he had to speak. But even with that, he is one of the hardest working people that I’ve ever met. Beyond that, he just has a sort of natural thing. He has a thing. He has the ‘it’ thing, an energy, a desire to connect, a passion and enthusiasm that’s always been there.”
Although the Fresh Prince cast all moved on from the show, some of the series’ fans haven’t. Ali found herself having to address the possibility of rebooting the sitcom due to fan demand. In a 2017 interview with Us Weekly, Ali felt some kind of revival series wouldn’t have been too out of the question. It helped that all of the show’s cast members looked the same. However, Ali felt Smith went through the most change out of all of them. At least on the outside.
“We all still kind of look like ourselves, I think,”she said. “Will is just larger. He’s like a body builder because he’s doing all these action films. He’s probably changed the most.”
Ali also doubted Smith would’ve wanted to tamper with the original show with a follow-up series.
“Some of us are [game]. I’m down. But it was a really special time for those six years. I’m not sure if Will necessarily wants to touch it. It might just need to stay that gem,” she said. “Honestly, knowing him, I think he might want to keep it as this just kind of precious moment. I don’t know how the characters would be now.”
Will Smith felt his role would have to change if he did a ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ reboot
Although Smith had fond memories of the 90s sitcom, he admittedly found it difficult to rewatch the series’ old episodes. Like Ali mentioned, Smith was still very green as an actor back then, and sitting through his old performance was an uncomfortable experience.
“It was my very first role, and I was very, very focused on being successful, so I learned the whole script and everyone else’s lines,” Smith said on The Graham Norton Show. “If you watch the first four or five episodes, you can see I’m mouthing other people’s lines. It’s terrible and I can’t bear to watch it.”
During the interview, Smith also revisited the possibility of doing a revival series for the show. But he quipped he couldn’t play the same type of character he used to back in the original series. Because of his age, Smith would have to take on a much more mature role.
“Man, I’d have to be Uncle Phil in that one now ― I’m nearly 50,” Smith said.
But when a revival series finally did happen, Smith would instead take a role behind the scenes. He serves as an executive producer for the streaming show Bel-Air, which is a dramatic reinvention of the sitcom featuring an entirely new cast of characters.
