Alfonso Ribeiro on How He Changed Will Smith’s Life on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’


0


Alfonso Ribeiro is sharing an insight into how he changed Will Smith’s life while they working on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air together.

In a December episode of VICE’s Black Comedy in America series, Smith, 56, listed his bond with Ribeiro, 53, as one of the “creative relationships I’ve had that have totally transformed my life.” Smith explained that his costar was always “giving everything” during Fresh Prince rehearsals, which taught him a great deal.

And during the Thursday, March 13, episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, Ribeiro reacted to Smith’s compliment and reflected on their friendship and time working together.

Will Smith and Alfonso Ribeiro in a promo photo for ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’.

NBCU Photo Bank/Getty


“It was wonderful to hear him say that. Will is my brother for life. And obviously our friendship and bond has now withstood the time of four or five decades. He’s absolutely the best,” Ribeiro told host Jennifer Hudson, adding that “part of its true” and they “created incredible magic that can’t be repeated” on the set of Fresh Prince.

The dad of four explained his belief about fully committing during rehearsals, saying that it’s essential to give your all in those moments because he believes that “for writers to be able to deliver the best they can deliver, they need to see their work at 100% to know whether it worked or didn’t work. So I would always give 100% in all rehearsals because then the writer would be like, ‘Oh yeah, that joke didn’t work.’ And so I would get a new joke.”

Alfonso added that sometimes “certain other actors” didn’t commit as fully, leaving them with a “joke that didn’t work” when it was time to film.

“I believe that part of what I received on Fresh Prince was because of the hard work that I would put in going 100% in all rehearsals allowed writers to write better lines for me,” he said.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

(Clockwise from top left) Janet Hubert, Will Smith, Joseph Marcell, Alfonso Ribeiro, Tatyana Ali, James Avery and Karyn Parsons in a ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ promotional photo.

Chris Cuffaio/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty


Ribeiro said that it was “wonderful to hear Will give me some of my flowers.”

“Obviously, I give him flowers all the time. He is just so incredible. He is the most talented guy I know and the most dedicated guy I know. So it’s mutual love,” he said.

Back in December, Smith told VICE that “there was like no question” that Ribeiro was “the one” when he auditioned to join the cast.

“Nobody commits as hard as Alf. We call it the ‘comedic limb.’ You know where you gon’ try this joke and you gon’ go out there with it and you gon’ risk it all. And one of his big things, why he would commit so hard with the lines, he says, ‘You commit so the writers can know it doesn’t work,’ ” Smith said.


Don’t miss the Buzz!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.


Like it? Share with your friends!

0

What's Your Reaction?

hate hate
0
hate
confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
fun fun
0
fun
geeky geeky
0
geeky
love love
0
love
lol lol
0
lol
omg omg
0
omg
win win
0
win

0 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Choose A Format
Personality quiz
Series of questions that intends to reveal something about the personality
Trivia quiz
Series of questions with right and wrong answers that intends to check knowledge
Poll
Voting to make decisions or determine opinions
Story
Formatted Text with Embeds and Visuals
List
The Classic Internet Listicles
Countdown
The Classic Internet Countdowns
Open List
Submit your own item and vote up for the best submission
Ranked List
Upvote or downvote to decide the best list item
Meme
Upload your own images to make custom memes
Video
Youtube and Vimeo Embeds
Audio
Soundcloud or Mixcloud Embeds
Image
Photo or GIF
Gif
GIF format