Janet Hubert (Original Aunt Vivian) Slams Will Smith In New Tell-All
Will Smith is widely considered one of the nicest guys in Hollywood — unless of course you’re talking to Janet Hubert, the actress who played the Original Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air for four seasons before being fired and recast in 1993.
Janet’s releasing a tell-all book, entitled Perfection Is Not A Sitcom Mom, the work set for released next year, and in it she says that Will is not the nice considerate guy he makes himself out to be. In fact, Janet says The Fresh Prince was a bit of a a diva. For example, if a guest star was too good and ran the risk of stealing the spotlight from Will, he made sure their asses were ousted. Secondly, no one but Mr. Jada Pinkett Smith was allowed to go on The Tonight Show for the first season, Hubert claims.
Janet openly admits that she blames Will for ruining her once burgeoning acting career.
In one excerpt from the book, given to Black Voice’s BV Buzz column, Janet writes: “Smith had people around him who made sure no one outshone him. I was happy to see Don Cheadle become the quality actor that he is, and often wondered how he made it past one episode, as Hilary’s boyfriend, being such a fierce actor. No one could be on ‘The Tonight Show,’ that first season, except Will. And I mean no one.”
Janet writes: “I recall the lovely and incredibly talented Countess Vaughn coming to guest star. Oh my God! The day of table read, she was pee-in-your-pants funny. The writers were howling, we were howling, so I knew she was history – banished into the cornfield. Many years later, after she had her own show, I had to tell her when she asked me why. ‘Miss Janet why did I get cut from the episode,’ she asked? Simply, my darling, you were too good…”
She recalls her Fresh Prince firing like so: First, producers offered her just 10 episodes, when the standard was 22-26. It would have meant a pay cut of over $100,000 a year, and Janet had a three and a half month old son, a new house, an unemployed husband, and a new business — she need a full contract. When she refuses to accept a cut in pay, she was fired.
The excerpt continues:
“‘That’s not all,’ Michael [her agent] said. ‘They don’t want you to work on any other shows. You can only do two guest starring roles.’ What? Who? I stammered. I couldn’t breathe. What do we do, Michael? What do we do? ‘We pass,’ Michael said. ‘This is a dirty deal, and they know it.’ OK, I trust you, I said. Michael had been my agent for more than 20 years. ‘OK sweetie, I will call you back,’ he said.”
…”My mind was going in a million places. OK, I thought, they will come back; this is how they do it. They always come back. I started into the kitchen where Rayna – my friend, housekeeper and nanny was. She was doing dishes as baby E was enjoying a swing. I knelt down, kissed his head, and waited for the next round of negotiations. They never came. The next time Michael called he said, ‘They are going to recast your role.’ There was a beautiful stained glass window that I designed in the bedroom, and the windows were open, so my neighbors probably heard me scream. And that beautiful window probably has many cracks in it. Time of Death: approximately 3 pm. The real Vivian Banks was murdered…”
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On July 24th 2009, Goooglibear wrote:
WOW JANET HUBERT IS A FRIKKEN RETARD.
the laddy can’t be the star of the shoow, and Will Smith is prollly not a jerk , cuz how come the other co-actors didnt EVER say he was.
everyone says hes the nicest person in hoollywood, obvs theres a reason for it ? frikken retard/
On January 7th 2010, VAFRESHPRINCEFAN wrote:
Anything is possible. As nice of a guy as Will Smith’s public persona is now, I’m sure it has taken years of growth for him to become the man he is today. Who’s to say he didn’t have a young “diva ” mentality when he first came on the scene. He was young, moving from a sucessfull music carreer into a just as sucessfull tv / film career, life was moving very fast and everyone around him was focus on him alone. He couldn’t have been the only one in that trap… he wasn’t the only young actor on that set. I’m just sorry that Mrs. Huberts’ carrer was possibly hindered by greed and selfishness, she was talented on screen.
On February 15th 2010, this is the story all about how... wrote:
Janet had to go, she had no regard for the group (the cast) and only for herself: it is wrong to destroy or reduce the survival of one’s companions or one’s group.
And she is putting out a book now, nearly two decades after it happened. You can never become clear if the only thing you do is focus on the negative. They offered her a six figure contract, she turned it down. It was a business decision she made years ago. I sat here for a minute or two and thought about my own life 17 years ago, I can (like everyone) see opportunities missed, career decisions that could have been better, and people who I feel wronged me. But I realize I have not thought about these things in over 10 years I have moved on. I accept responsibility for my decisions and I am overall happy with my life.
I cannot imagine holding a grudge for that length of time. It’s not healthy. You have to forgive and forget.
At my last high school reunion, I bought a guy who bullied me a drink. He hurt me long ago, but we grew up together and that means something. A year after that reunion, I made his Chirstmas card list
On March 28th 2010, misha wrote:
im not surprised of what janet hubert says
i used to be a will smith fan and i still have the whole show (the fresh prince of bel-air) on vhs and now on dvd
now i grew up and i could see that the whole entire show was just and for will smith
every single joke was just in front of his face to make him be the funniest guy in the world
it was pretty obvious that even the special guests was just to make him be bigger and better
i really believe will got loads of people around him to make him be in the centre of the spotlight
bad boys
hancock pleeease
I ROBOT
im a legend ….. any more evidences?
On July 17th 2010, jj22 wrote:
LMAO! Misha is a retard!
On July 19th 2010, Brittany wrote:
Alfonso Ribeiro Carlton says this woman was crazy. He enjoyed working with everyone else but he specifies that this woman was just another story altogether.
On July 28th 2010, Lady wrote:
Wow.
She really needs to get over it. Will Smith is a star and she’s not. Big who cares? To acctually write a book on the matter two decades after the fact?
She’s nothing more than a bitter woman trying to bring down will. How stupid.
On July 28th 2010, cbllw wrote:
I don’t know why, but I believe her yo!
On August 18th 2010, 2damnfunny wrote:
I loved Aunt Viv and actually stopped watching when they replaced her but it seems Ms Hurbert may have some issues.
I’m sorry. Is it me or was the show not called ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’….not ‘The Fresh Prince’s Auntie of Bel-Air’?
Every sitcom has a star (especially when their name is in the title) and they are the main focus of the show hence ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bernie Mac Show, The Stevie Harvey Show, The Cosby Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, etc.
Using Countess Vaughn as an example was a poor choice because I’ve read about problems she’s had working with others especially on ‘Moesha’.
If anyone looks as Will Smith track record, he has helped many that he worked with or new in the business with oppurtunities. Debbie Allen and Alfonso have directed many episodes of shows he produced. He recommended Jamie Foxx for his part in ‘Ali’
I guess I was just expecting a bit more then some personal gripes.
On August 24th 2010, mya wrote:
you jealous bitch stop hateing on will like that you probably was irrogant.move on hoe, ya nappy head wench
On August 24th 2010, mya wrote:
screw her jealous hoe,
On October 2nd 2010, Jay wrote:
Although I did like Janet better as Aunt Viv, she still needs to get a grip. Like many of you have said: Its been 2 decades! Holding a grudge for this long is ridiculous! She needs to just move on with her life. I’m not saying that there isn’t any truth to the statements that she is making but so what. If it was really that serious, she would have “told-all” a long time ago. Stop trying to get some recognition now, no one cares.
On August 16th 2011, sarah wrote:
i can see them both being rude asses more then the other and her replacement sucked but Will truely seems nice now and i cant think of an episode where there was a guest star who really was better then Will smith even queen latifah when she guest starred a couple times looked bad next to Will