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In her alternately plaintive and scathing memoir, actress Janet Hubert, known as Vivian Banks on the popular 90's sitcom 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air,' strikes back at former colleagues whom she says denigrated her name and hurt her career.
In 'Perfection Is Not A Sitcom Mom,' Hubert addresses her departure from the show in 1993 and the toll it took on her personal and emotional life. She talks exclusively to BV on Books about what motivated her to write the book and what she's up to today:
Black Voices: What motivated you to write your memoir?
Janet Hubert: I decided to publish my memoir because I saw this YouTube rant that Alfonso Ribeiro [Carlton] had done about me. He said I was crazy and that I was fired and that I was out of my mind. No one ever defends black women, so I had to do it myself. I wrote it for clarity, to clear my clear my name. I got tired of answering questions about why I left. I answer every single question. In the book, I also talk about how words can kill. You don't take someone's life and just step on it, and you don't take my family's name and destroy it.
BV: What are the most surprising things readers will learn?
JH: My departure was planned for a long time...There will never be a reunion of the 'Fresh Prince.' Will Smith and Alfonso destroyed a 20-year-career with untruths. I got slammed. Will apologized later in an 'Essence Magazine' article, but it still lingers. It's still there...
BV: What have you been up to?
JH: I live on the East Coast. I love the East Coast because there is energy, something else other than entertainment. On the West Coast, everyone is waiting to be discovered. I've been here now for 11 years. My son Elijah is 16. He'll be in college next year.
I've created a children's book series called 'JG & the BC Kids.' It's about a little boy who solves a complicated mathematical equation that opens his imagination and out comes a teacher who takes him and his friends on an adventure.
BV: What's next on the horizon?
JH: I'm quite content. I'm getting my son off to college. I'm remarried and living peacefully. I've written a pilot for a dramady. I'm doing some pitches and I'm going to start [filming] soon...
Comments: (269)
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By: Tasha on 1/05/2010 8:42AM
I forgot to add Janet was the best mother on Fresh Prince. I like Daphne Maxwell-Reid, but she never felt as natural in the role. Janet was very realistic at the wife/mom, she was extremely funny, she showed other talents like her dancing ability and the show had better chemistry all the way around when she was the mom. The show was never quite the same after Janet left. Well, I wish her good luck in her future career endeavors.
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By: East Coast King on 1/05/2010 9:30AM
Couldn't agree with you more. Nuthin beats the Original Aunt Viv.
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By: kekeli on 1/05/2010 8:44AM
Will always had a certain contempt for darker-skinned women, a rapped-about and well documented preference for "light" eyes and mixed women. He also has an unconditional love for white people and money. He knew he was washed up as a rapper, and what it took to keep his career going. I'm sorry that throwing Janet under the bus for not knuckling under to his buffoonery was rewarded rather than examined. If he was truly sorry, he later had the clout to have her cast in a movie or two of his. THAT's restitution. Did he? No. I'm glad she wrote the book, and hope its details expose the racism that makes people like Smith desperate to hold onto what they've got, to the point of putting each other out of work. Will Smith should have read Willie Lynch's speech before succumbing to such tactics. He's no hero of ours, and I wish Essence would stop hailing him and Jada as the perfect "high-yellas". If y'all only knew...
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By: niakoro76 on 1/07/2010 4:27PM
Preach Sista, Preach!!
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By: pippinsring on 1/07/2010 4:34PM
I don't think Will Smith has the authority to grant anyone a movie or TV role. He's an actor, not a casting director.
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By: The truth on 1/20/2010 5:21PM
She was a KOOK! She was unfriendly she went crazy in a restaurant over a little dare. We were all drinking and having a good time. Blossom's cast was at the next table. Someone dared Mayim Bialik's father to kiss a woman at our table. He came over and gave her a peck on the cheek. Ms. Whitten went insane saying "you would have never done that to white woman!" Making something that clearly wasn't racial into her own nutty diatribe. Needless to say it made everyone uncomfortable and confirmed her Kookiness. She is bonkers. Many more stories. Now she is married to white man. But all she did was make anything racial. Even when there was nothing of the sort.
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By: Mindy on 1/05/2010 8:48AM
Every time I read something about Ms Hubert, she is whining about how everyone else in every cast diminished her role, or importance. I will never understand why "celebs", whether big or small, feel the need to lash out at others so publicly.
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By: Yaya on 1/05/2010 9:17AM
I sure do hope this "class act" moves on real quick! Sure, Janet Hubert is a great actress BUT to rip off on Will this late in the game is senseless. Time to move on Janet! Do something constructive!
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By: kay on 1/05/2010 9:16AM
I don't think you can make this a light skin dark skin issue. Will's bestfriend was dark skin and he has dark skin people in his family. And Europeans conquering around the world made White right and every race Asian, Indian, African, Hispanic have tried to reach that standard or assimulated on some level.
He was young and wanted to be free and run things. She was a mature woman and was not going to let a child (he was still in his teens when the show first air) run over her no matter how powerful he was in hollywood.
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By: luke on 1/05/2010 10:11AM
Now that is funny...so it is how old someone is thta determines what they are allowed control of...i forgot...what was the show called...."Black woman that can't act and is brought in because she looks clean and works cheap feels like she should run the show." yeah that was the title.
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