The Real Reason Why Will Smith Chose To Keep His Name On 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'

With communicate of a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot on the horizon, we just can not get sufficient behind-the-scenes stories of the display. While Will Smith has gone on to grow to be one of the biggest movie stars and celebrities on the planet, he'll nonetheless at all times be that kid from "west Philidelphia, born and raised". So, we simply can't wait for him to go back to the persona, even supposing the reboot tragically won't feature Uncle Phil. Seriously, we're going to by no means disregard some of the touching moments between Will and Uncle Phil. It's unhappy we'll by no means see anymore.

But times have changed...

Luckily for Will, he may not have to do an excessive amount of work to return to his famous sitcom personality. After all, he was primarily based on him or even shared his first and ultimate name... And there's a very specific reason for that. A reason that many Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fanatics could also be totally unaware of it.

So, what is it?

Related: Fresh Prince Cast Reunites Without Original Aunt Vivian

Will Pulled Back The Curtains On The Graham Norton Show

Will Smith is a regular guest of Britain's Graham Norton Show. After all, the chat display could be very much his rhythm, in spite of being the largest late-night display in the UK. It used to be there that Will shed light on why he chose to keep his real name for the now-iconic NBC show which began in 1990 and ran for 6 seasons.

A pair of years ago, the topic got here up when Graham Norton was discussing Will's incredible rise to fame and the success that he's loved since his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air days.

"It's incredible given that you have this phenomenal film career that Fresh Prince doesn't go away," Graham said.

Will smiled charmingly at this and said, "In every country in the world, that is the thing that I am most known for. No matter how big the movies get. It's the Fresh Prince everywhere."

He then went on to say that "as long as they're screaming 'Will!' I'm cool."

"It's funny because Alfonso Ribeiro, who plays Carlton... When we first started the show, we were trying to come up with names for the characters. And we were going through it and we're talking about it. And Alfonso pulled me aside, he said, 'Man, let me tell you something.' He said, 'Whatever your character's name is, people are going to call you that for the rest of your life'..."

This is when Alfonso Ribeiro told the Independence Day star to name his persona "Will Smith".

Related: Are ‘Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’ Stars Will Smith And Tatyana Ali Still Close?

Unfortunately, Alfonso didn't take that advice for himself. Whenever he and Will move out, people are shouting Will's name... and Carlton's...

When Will Smith informed this to Graham Norton, the British chat display host laughed and mentioned, "but 'Carlton' is better than 'Alfonso'..."

Graham joked that possibly Alfonso Ribeiro wanted to be called Carlton as a substitute as it was a some distance awesome name.

Guess we will never know needless to say.

The Previous Thought About Why Will Chose To Keep His Name Was Slightly Different

Just not too long ago, Will Smith re-confirmed this story when he did a Snapchat Show, Will From Home, during the first part of the 2020 quarantine. The show changed into a little of a Fresh Prince reunion as Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Joseph Marcell, Daphne Maxwell Reid and DJ Jazzy Jeff all confirmed up.

As did Carlton himself, Alfonso Ribeiro.

Alfonso additionally took the time to back up this claim about the beginning of Will's name on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.

But the earlier thought was reasonably other.

Related: Will Smith Owns The Stage As He Raps His Life Story On The Tonight Show

If you take a look at Reddit feeds, Wikipedia, and other sources, fans once consider there used to be a special reason for the shared name. First off, the persona was once supposedly based totally on Will in real lifestyles, so the shared name made some sense. Although the persona and the real-life Will simplest have rough and superficial connections. Not to mention, the "Will" on The Fresh Prince was quick for "William", whilst "Will" in real life is short for "Willard".

On best of this, fanatics idea that Will chose to keep his name as some kind of business transfer. As if it have been a ploy to market himself, his tune, and his doable film career while starring on a sitcom... Not unlike what Roseanne, Jerry Seinfeld, and later Larry David all did.

But that seems to be a massive over-exaggeration. While it definitely worked out in Will's prefer, the fact was decidedly more effective as adversarial to a nearly machiavellian business decision.

What's nice about all of this is the undeniable fact that Will is happy to give credit score to Alfonso for coming up with this relatively brilliant and life-changing selection.

Hey, that is what cousins are for!

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