Janet Hubert talks ‘Fresh Prince’, reveals suicidal thoughts after departure
Hubert and host Chris Witherspoon have a candid conversation on her career, and a surprise guest makes an appearance
In a new interview, Janet Hubert talks about her Hollywood journey, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and opens up about “contemplating suicide” after her exit.
PopViewers, the new Black-owned pop culture app, just officially launched and it’s already showcasing exclusive interviews with actors and people within Black entertainment culture. One of their first interviews is with TV legend, Janet Hubert, and it did not disappoint.
The actress sat down with host and app creator Chris Witherspoon, and got candid about her experience on Fresh Prince and even revealed that she “contemplated suicide” in her youth.
In the interview, Hubert opens up about the audition process for The Fresh Prince. When Witherspoon asks Hubert if she knew the role was hers, she reveals to Witherspoon, “No, I didn’t want it! I didn’t want it because I knew I was not what they were looking for.”
She cheekily explains, “So sometimes when you think you know something…you don’t know sh-t!” She explains that she was not even nervous when she was flown out to “test” for the role, saying, “I did not even try, and they said to me, ‘It was not what you did with the lines, it’s what you did in between the lines.’”
She explains that after leaving the show, things were hard for her. “There were moments that I felt so broken, so low…I didn’t know what I could do. There were moments where I wanted to die.”
When Witherspoon asks Hubert if she ever contemplated suicide, she reveals, “Absolutely…because I figured…I had a life insurance policy that would take care of my son.”
She explains that everywhere she went people would say hurtful things to her and that people used the Fresh Prince situation against her, which led to an altercation with a man, serving 400 hours of community service, and the brink of a nervous breakdown.
“That’s when I said, ‘I am going to have a nervous breakdown now,’” Hubert explained.
The interview also features a surprise appearance from MSNBC’s Joy Reid, a longtime fan of Hubert’s.
She gushes to Hubert, “What I loved about you was that there were so few chocolate brown-skinned women on TV that we could admire, that we could see reflecting ourselves.”
You can check out the full interview and more PopViewers content here.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air series and the 2020 reunion special are currently streaming on HBO Max now.
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