If there was one thing that Will learned on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air it’s that you do not want to mess with Aunt Viv. Life is now imitating art as Janet Hubert has come out with a new video blog and has taken her former costar, and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, to task for her call to have black actors boycott the Oscars. Check it out below.
The Smiths.Posted by Blacktress Janet Hubert on Monday, January 18, 2016
Damn, Aunt Viv is pissed. Janet Hubert says in her Facebook post that at her age, she’s just not worried about upsetting people anymore so she lays it all out there. Jada Pinkett Smith has been one of the most prominent voices calling for a Boycott of the Academy Awards due to the lack of minority representation in the nominations. Hubert has a serious problem with this idea because, while Will Smith and his wife may have the clout to boycott the awards, not every African-American actor in Hollywood is in a position to do that.
For you to ask other actors and other blacktresses and black actors to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well you don’t do that and here’s the other thing, they don’t care.
The points here seem to be slightly contradictory. On the one hand, Janet Hubert argues that black actors and actresses might face repercussions from Hollywood for boycotting the awards. But if ultimately "they" aren’t going to care about the boycott, then it’s not clear why there would be any sort of punishment? Also, while it might be true that actors could be putting their career in jeopardy for bringing attention to this issue, that’s a problem unto itself that should be dealt with.
Janet Hubert also views the call for boycott as being a selfish affair on the part of Jada Pinkett Smith. The former Fresh Prince actress connects the boycott directly to the fact that Will Smith did not receive an Oscar nomination for his role in Concussion. Hubert then goes on to say that there was, at least, one black actor that should have received a nomination, but it wasn’t Will Smith.
There are those out there that really deserved a nod and Idris Elba was one of them, lord have mercy Beast of No Nation was incredible, that man is an incredible actor...maybe you didn’t deserve a nomination. I didn’t think, frankly, you deserved a Golden Globe nomination with that accent.
Needless to say, the Oscar nominations have brought some very strong emotions out on all sides. Most agree that there are issues with minorities representation, and even Hubert seems to concede this, but exactly how to deal with it is becoming very contentious. With more than a month before the award ceremony, we expect this won’t be the last voice to speak out.
