Janet Hubert, the actress who played the original Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, had a bone to pick with Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith. Hubert posted a video on Facebook Sunday night claiming Pinkett Smith was only complaining about the Oscars’ lack of diversity because her husband didn’t receive a nomination.
“For you to ask other actors, black actors, to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town, you know damn well you don’t do that. And I find it ironic that someone who has made a living, and made millions of millions of dollars, from the very people you talk about boycotting, because you didn’t win? That’s not the way life works, and it’s very suspect for me,” Hubert stated in her video.
Most people chalked Hubert’s video up to bitterness of being fired from the popular sitcom, but there were others who agreed with her. But the person whom her anger was directed towards, did have a few words to say about it when a reporter caught up with her.
The reporter asked Pinkett Smith how did she feel about the video, but didn’t mention the video at first, until Pinkett Smith snapped her fingers prompting the reporter to just spit it out, and the reporter finally mentioned the ‘Aunt Viv’ video.
"Considering that Alabama had its highest recruitment for the KKK for Martin Luther King's birthday, I hope that we as African-Americans can find a way to get along and step together," Smith says.
She continued, “This whole Oscar controversy isn't really about the Oscars," Smith stated. "Really, in my plea to ask all communities and people of color to take back our power is so that we can use it in all sectors of our community, and right now, specifically with African-American people, we have some very serious issues that I think we as a people have to move together on. I'm hoping we can find ways to step together in this instead of finding ways to fight each other. I got love for everybody."
Pinkett Smith’s response definitely wasn’t an attack on Hubert, and you can tell that wasn’t the purpose of it. The actress also responded to Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the Academy’s president, who released a statement about the Oscars’ lack of diversity, after Pinkett Smith suggested a boycott.
Isaacs stated that more of an effort was needed to promote inclusion and diversity and she was going to start at the Academy’s membership level.
Pinkett Smith tweeted her reaction to Isaacs' press release:
https://twitter.com/jadapsmith/status/689613755819261953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfwhttps://twitter.com/jadapsmith/status/689613822840012800
There’s one thing for sure, despite the Oscars lack of diversity, this is probably the most talk its received in years.