Every true Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fan knows the most emotional scene in the entire sequence. It came in the collection’ fourth season and twenty fourth episode called “Papa’s Got A Brand New Excuse”, and it’s a terrific example of Will Smith’s appearing skill. It was natural uncooked emotion involving Will Smith and his on-screen uncle, James Avery. And while Smith will get all the credit for the scene, as Uncle Phil remains basically silent through the stretch of emotional speech, Smith has given the entire credit to Avery for helping him get thru that second.
In the general moments, Avery and Smith hug each and every other as the digital camera pans to the statue Will was going to give his dad. During that emotional second, Avery had a comment for the younger superstar at the time.
“‘That’s ****ing appearing right there’,” Will Smith says in an interview about what Avery stated to him whilst they embraced.
It’s the perfect finishing to a troublesome day to shoot what used to be the most emotional scene within the sequence, and an iconic one for tv. How they got to that time is an incredible story.
Acted Avery In The Scene
Will Smith in point of fact wanted this scene to come off completely, but the problem was once he was appearing the scene, instead of residing the scene. And appearing wasn’t going to seize that second at all. The scene was being executed in entrance of a are living studio target market, so it had to be highest in order for the crowd to really feel it and confidently now not applaud the performance, however be captured via it.
"So we're doing that scene and I'm having a hard time," Smith explains. "'Cause we were rehearsing and everything so, I'm doing it, I'm messing up the lines 'cause I want it so bad and I'm in front of the audience and I'm doing it and I'm furious and he holds on to me and he says, 'Hey, relax. Relax. It's already in there,” said Smith.
The next thing he said to him change the entire direction of the scene, as Avery had the smarts to realize that Smith needed to aim his emotion at someone, and not just pretend to aim it at someone.
“You know what it is...Look at me. Use me. Don't act around me. Act with me.',” Smith Said. “So he's talking me through it and everything. I get it together. So I do the scene and then he hugs me at the end.”
That’s when he whispered into Smith’s ear about acting, and it changed the momentum of the show, as Smith went from being a boy in the seasons prior, to finally becoming a man. It was a defining moment for his character, and for the show, and it’s one of the reasons the series was brought back for two more seasons after that.
Smith Aimed For Avery’s Approval
James Avery passed away in 2013 at the age of 68 from complications from open-heart surgery. It hit everybody laborious when Avery died, as Smith seemed up to him in a lot of ways. Smith said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, when he died, "Some of my biggest courses in acting, living, and being a decent human being came thru James Avery. Every younger man needs an Uncle Phil. Rest in peace."
Smith has said that he has looked up to Avery, especially when they worked together on the show, despite Smith’s character playing a lot of jokes on his overweight Uncle, the two actors show a lot of respect for each other, and Smith was always looking for his approval. And that reflected even more in the scene they did together.
“It makes me teary right now because it was like I was using…I was using him,” said Smith. “I wanted him to want me. I wanted him to approve of me. So actually in that scene with him I was transferring that energy onto James Avery.”
Urban Legends Around The Scene
There was a wide rumor going around that Will Smith ad-libbed the entire speech and that his character was supposed to brush it off as it was no big deal. Instead, Smith went into the emotional speech, because his father wasn’t active in his life and he was pushing some of that pain out in the scene.
But the truth is, his father was very involved in his life, and Will didn’t just go off-script. The emotional speech to Avery was scripted and rehearsed over and over to try and get it right. And apparently, Smith did the scene for the cameras in one take, which is hard to do, but it would be hard to do that kind of reaction over and over again.
“Before this scene, Will Smith disappeared,” said a Reddit user in an interview with The Sun who was at the taping. “He showed up, did this scene in one take, then disappeared again. You might notice his hat coming off. Usually, the director would retake the scene, but really, nothing could replace this moment. People were crying for a long time when it was over, doing their best not to make noise before the director said ‘cut.’”
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