The fourth and final season of Peacock’s Bel-Air is officially underway after its three-episode premiere. Shocking to no one who’s been watching, it was everything you could have hoped for. Among the expected things was everything being paid off from the season 3 finale.
Before the season premiere, I was lucky enough to talk with actors Jabari Banks (Will Smith), Simone Joy Jones (Lisa), and Olly Sholotan (Carlton). Each of them came into this interview with the enthusiasm and happiness that could make the most morose person smile. Even now, as I write this, I’m filled with joy as I look back at it because they didn’t just do the interview. They made me feel at home with friends.
Confident under pressure
As many of you know, Peacock TV's Bel-Air is based on the characters from the original program, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. With that in mind, I had to know how they dealt with the pressure of playing iconic characters.
“You gotta walk in through it with your chest up," Jabari Banks answers with admirable confidence. "Hold your head up, don’t second-guess yourself, even though that’s easier said than done. And go through it boldly."
"I’m a film believer in the idea that diamonds are made under pressure. And, when the show was announced, people said, “Why are they redoing this? What is this going to be?” And now we’re the longest original Peacock television show."Olly Sholotan
“I think that pressure is part of being an actor," Simone Joy Jones adds. "I had an actor teacher once from the stage who said, ‘It’s somebody’s first show, it’s somebody’s last show always.’ So I think it was kind of new and exciting to watch the audience invited into the pressure that we all feel, but it’s a part of it.”
Being Black enough
As with my interview with Carla Banks-Waddles, I asked about the topic of not being Black enough. Simone was the first to respond, and it was amazing. “I feel like, however we participate instantly becomes Black.”
With Olly Sholotan playing Carlton (whose character faces this topic a lot), he responds with something similar to what Carla Waddles-Banks said about how being Black isn’t a monolith.
“I feel that the whole central theme is that Blackness is not a monolith. We’re all different facets of the Black experience. Carlton is as Black as Will, as Black as Lisa, as Black as Uncle Phil, as Black as Geoffrey.”
“I agree with Simone," Olly continues to highlight what his co-star said. "Ultimately, at the end of the day, whether we’re driving F-1 cars or whether we’re playing basketball, it’s still Black.’
"I think our culture could benefit from even more expansiveness. Do more things that aren't seen as Black. Because the more we can do that, the less we have the conversation of what is Black and what isn't Black."Jabari Banks
Simone adds another great point about how our media affects how Black culture is perceived.
“A lot of our media is not told from our perspective. So I feel like we’re so practiced in white culture in a way that we’re so used to being the underbelly and the underdog and the counter culture that we forget that it (Black Culture) always becomes mainstream.”
Bel-Air season 4
There was no way I could end this conversation without asking what they were excited for fans to see. Each of their comments had one common theme. They all said that season 4 of Bel-Air will be fun. Jabari Banks starts the final topic.
"There are some singing sequences," Banks said. "Some dancing sequences. We’re giving them (the audience) a taste of something they’ve never seen in the show. I think that's going to be super exciting for me to see how they take that in."
“I think this season was a lot of fun," Sholotan said. "As sad as it is to go into it knowing it was the last season, we had a commitment to making a very fun season. And there are so many sequences that just feel like food for the soul. And I’m excited to have fans watch the dancing and the singing.”
Simone Joy Jones ends the topic saying, "It’s fun. It’s sexy. It’s cool. I felt like we didn’t have to bottle our own emotions. We could fuse ourselves into it in a very organic way. We’re experiencing how we want to end our own season.
As someone who's seen what's coming, everything that Simone Joy Jones, Olly, and Jabari Banks say is true. You don't want to miss the record-breaking final season of Peacock's Bel-Air. Stay tuned to Show Snob to find out what that is.
Bel-Air is released every Monday on Peacock at 3am.