Why ‘Bel-Air’ Star Coco Jones is ‘Grateful’ Work With Disney Ended
Coco Jones got a second chance at her Hollywood dreams after she bravely dished about her experiences with Disney. Since then, she has turned heads as Hilary Banks on Bel-Air and continues to create new music. Jones recently spoke about how grateful she is that things with Disney went south.
Coco Jones previously spoke about disappointment in how things went with Disney
Jones appeared in several Disney programs, most notably, the musical Let It Shine. She was also set to have her own TV show, just as other Disney stars like Miley Cyrus and Hilary Duff, but things fell through.
In a YouTube video she recorded titled What Really Happened that she released in 2020, Jones explained how things derailed after the movie. “After Let It Shine, there was supposed to be a Let It Shine two. The writer wrote it…whoever didn’t want to do it, it didn’t go. I don’t know who didn’t want to be a part of it, but it was done,” she said. Jones added: “Either it was the channel that didn’t wanna pick it up, that’s normal. Things like that happen. Just because you had a great show doesn’t mean they’re going to do another one, but there were plans.”
She notes the experience was disappointing, considering her talent was equal to and even surpassed other stars on the network. “I thought I was supposed to be the next Raven. In my mind, that’s what I was thinking…I can even recall being in a room looking around at the heads of all of this. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a wrap,” she said.
Ultimately, she believes things went south with Disney because they didn’t know how to market her. With a mature singing voice than other Disney stars and her being of a darker skin complexion, she felt the executives gave up.
With her newfound success, she has a different perspective and is grateful things with Disney didn’t work out as planned
Jones resurfaced in a major way when she appeared on The Terrell Show shortly after she released the YouTube video. Old and new fans were impressed with her vocal skills, impersonations, and more. From there, she was able to build a larger social media following and attract a new audience in Hollywood. She now stars in Bel-Air, a dramatized version of the 90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Though she used to be upset over how things ended with Disney, she now views things differently. She says she could have potentially gotten typecast as a Disney star. “I’m really grateful that, like, I got to experience a lot of the pros of being on a big machine like Disney Channel, but I didn’t get too tied into it. I never had the show — I was actually supposed to have a show, and it just didn’t pan out,” she said on Black Girl Stuff. “At the time, I didn’t understand why. But looking back, I’m like it’s so hard already to break out of that Disney star mold that if I did have that, there’s no way they’re not gonna see me as that character for the rest of my life.”
She also notes that she was able to live a normal life due to the break she received. “I also feel like because I had all the success young, I kind of got to be a little normal,” she said. “Again, like, as I was coming into my own — literally, I didn’t go to college. But I went to USC because I was partying. I met all of these great girls, and they became really close to me. And they didn’t see me as, like, some disease. They just saw me as a regular girl. I feel like I was figuring out myself, and getting to be around peers that weren’t looking at me crazy, and that’s kind of what kept me normal.”
In addition to ‘Bel-Air,’ she also released a new EP
Season 2 of Bel-Air is scheduled to premiere in Feb. 2023 on the streaming platform. Jones also recently released a seven-track EP, What I Didn’t Tell You. She also collaborates with Terrell Grice in a YouTube show titled T and Coco.
