Janet Hubert – or Aunt Viv to us Gen Xers – has finally jumped into the fray. The former The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum took to Facebook and posted a video of her own, slamming Jada Pinkett-Smith’s recent call to boycott this year’s Academy Awards for not having any colored nominees in its roster.
The four-minute video, which was posted on Monday, shows Hubert sitting in what seems to be her kitchen and launching into her own tirade against the Smiths.
‘Fresh Prince’ Actress Janet Hubert Steps Up Attack on Jada Pinkett Smith https://t.co/Od4C2U7NlE pic.twitter.com/QZ5RxE8t8R
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) January 22, 2016
Addressing Pinkett-Smith as “Miss Thing,” Janet Hubert proceeded to criticize the actress’ motives in initiating the boycott, and implied that she was merely sour-graping about the fact that Will did not get an Oscar nomination for his performance in Concussion.
Watch Janet Hubert a.k.a. Aunt Viv Rant About Jada Pinkett-Smith’s Oscars Boycott Plea
She also accused Pinkett-Smith of trying to “jeopardize” the careers of other black actors and actresses by dragging them into their cause.
“For you to ask other actors, other blacktresses [sic] and black actors to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well, you don’t do that,” Janet Hubert ranted.
In a no-holds-barred interview with The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, Janet Hubert went into greater detail about diversity in Hollywood as well as other greater issues that need more attention. She stated that some actors have become fixated on working to gain recognition as opposed to focusing on the job at hand and striving to execute it in the best possible way.
Exclusive: “Fresh Prince” star Janet Hubert explains why she weighed in on an Oscars boycott https://t.co/UqJesxnpln pic.twitter.com/JLPnnsSjOB
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) January 20, 2016
If you are waiting for an award of a little…gold statue and that’s supposed to validate you, then you’re not in this business for the right reasons,” said Hubert in the interview. “We get paid a lot of money to do very little work.”
Jada Pinkett-Smith has since reacted to Hubert’s rant and noticeably chose a more diplomatic approach to the issue.
“This whole Oscar controversy isn’t really about the Oscars” https://t.co/PetaV0arGk
— New York Post (@nypost) January 22, 2016
In an informal interview conducted by ETonline, the 44-year-old actress responded to Janet Hubert by suggesting that members of the black community unite instead of antagonize each other in order to address African-American issues more effectively.