Will Smith is giving credit to a very special person in his life.
The actor, 56, appeared in the Dec. 3 episode of VICE’s Black Comedy in America series to reflect on his rise to stardom in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Throughout his career, Smith said he has learned from those around him, but one of his original costars left a particularly long-lasting mark on his life.
“There’s been a couple of creative relationships I’ve had that have totally transformed my life,” he explained, naming Jazzy Jeff, with whom he won the first rap Grammy, as one of the two. “Where you meet somebody who understands you in a way that other people don’t understand you — and they’re able to understand you, then craft things for you to create and shine and explode. And Alfonso [Ribeiro] was that guy for sure.”
“When he came in for the audition, there was like no question, that’s the one,” Smith continued. “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.'”
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What Smith admired most about the Dancing with the Stars host, 53, was his dedication to the craft. He remembered during their Fresh Prince days, Ribeiro would be “redlining” and “giving everything” on a Tuesday, days before their Friday tapings.
“The willingness to crash and burn is the only way you can be funny,” Smith said.
His relationships with everyone on the show were not as strong as the one he had with Ribeiro, though. Elsewhere in the episode, Smith revealed that he completely misjudged costar Janet Hubert while the two were on the ‘90s sitcom.
“I made a horrible error and misjudgment of her value and power and beauty to the show,” Smith admitted to host Chris Spencer. “I horribly underestimated what she was for me at that point in my life.”
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The two have since reconciled, sitting down for the first time in decades to unpack their differences and make amends in the 2020 Max special celebrating 30 years of The Fresh Prince.
Speaking to PEOPLE in 2021, Hubert said she and Smith had a “very good relationship” following the discussion.
“We text each other back and forth all the time,” Hubert shared. “I meant it with all my heart when I hugged him, because I saw that little boy, that little 21-year-old boy. Had we had an opportunity to talk back then, I think this would have never happened.”
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Black Comedy in America airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on VICE. Catch a marathon of the entire series on New Year’s Day from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET/PT.
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