Here’s How Will Smith Shocked ‘Bel-Air’ Star Jabari Banks With Surprise Zoom
Bel-Air, starring Jabari Banks, is one of the strangest streaming TV flagships. The controversial prestige drama reboot of the beloved sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was initially ridiculed by many as an unnecessarily overwrought take on a simple sitcom.
But the final product ended up being much more interesting than the premise implied, earning it a second season on Peacock. One of the main reasons the series ended up clicking with viewers is Jabari Banks, who plays Will Smith in the dark reinterpretation of Smith’s now-legendary show.
It’s a role that Banks wasn’t necessarily seen as the obvious choice for — including to the 24-year-old actor himself.
‘Bel-Air’ was strong enough to earn a second season
Bel-Air isn’t a straightforwardly dark reboot of a sitcom. Yes, it does a lot of straight-faced adapting of plot lines from the original Fresh Prince. But the concept came out of a short fan film by Morgan Cooper, which had an understated satirical tone.
That tone carries over to the series, which shares an identical fish-out-of-water premise with the sitcom version. The series is awash in humor but not the punchline crowd-pleasers fans might expect. Smith, Carlton Banks, and Aunt Viv are all still here in a reimagined form.
It makes a counter-intuitive sort of sense to handle the material this way. The original series pulled heavily from the real-life experiences of co-creator Andy Borowitz and Smiths’ background. Some of its most famous moments were played completely straight.
Critics are mixed overall on the series. According to Collider, certain characters still haven’t coalesced in this refreshingly dramatic retelling. Overall, though, it’s easy to see the appeal that Smith saw in Cooper’s original short.
How ‘Bel-Air’ star Jabari Banks found out he got the lead role
Will Smith wanted to find the perfect young actor to take on the starring role — one with few screen credits but a star-worthy presence. And they needed someone with a similar background to the real-life Smith: Philadelphia upbringing, good rapper, solid basketball player.
Banks checked all of those boxes. The young actor had no screen credits at all, but his education at the University for the Arts in Philadelphia landed him an audition. His degree in musical theater was put to work. But the now 24-year-old actor didn’t think he’d get the job.
The audition went down over Zoom, Insider reports. Banks was in a friend’s apartment and didn’t have a proper backdrop for his performance. He used a cleared-out closet to make things work. He heard back from Cooper, who said he wanted to do one more “creative session” with Banks.
So the young actor cleared out the closet again for what he thought might be an additional audition. Instead, Smith himself appeared in the Zoom meeting and said the job was his.
Is the second ‘Bel-Air’ season on stronger footing than the first?
According to most critics, the second season of Bel-Air is an improvement over the first. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the inaugural season was often a bit too dour, leading to a 65% positive rating. Meanwhile, the second season has a 90% positive rating.
Critics are keen on how the show justifies itself as a reboot by legitimately presenting the old ideas in a brand new light. This isn’t a re-tread; these are familiar plots and characters that would be just as compelling without the nostalgia factor.
Secondary characters are more three-dimensional than the original sitcom format allowed. It turns out the bones of that show were strong enough to support a dramatic take like this. Characters like Hilary Banks are presented as having fuller lives than before, much to the delight of longtime fans.
