Tuesday, 19 January 2016

'Fresh Prince' Star Janet Hubert Slams Jada Pinkett Smith for Boycotting Oscars

Janet Hubert didn't hold back speaking out against Jada Pinkett Smith boycotting the Academy Awards this year.

Hubert -- who played Aunt Vivian on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -- posted a video response to Will Smith's wife, who announced that she will not be attending the Oscars due to the lack of diversity among the nominees. "First of all, Miss Thing, does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?" Hubert declared. "The second thing, girlfriend, there's a lot of sh** going on in the world that you all don't seem to recognize. People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you're talking about some motherf**king actors and Oscars. It just ain't that deep."

Hubert also did not agree with Jada asking other people in Hollywood to boycott the awards show. "And here's the other thing, for you to ask other actors, and other black actresses and actors, too, to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well you don't do that," she said. "And here's the other thing -- they don't care. They don't care! And I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living, and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people you're talking about boycotting just because you didn't get a nomination, just because you didn't win. That is not the way life works, baby."

She added, "It's very suspect to me."

On Fresh Prince, Hubert played Aunt Viv from 1990 to 1993 before she was replaced by Daphne Maxwell-Reid. During her rant against Jada's Oscars boycott, the actress called out her former on-screen nephew -- whose work in Concussion was snubbed by the Academy -- for not helping her and her co-stars negotiate raises while she was on the show. "Karma's a b**ch," Hubert exclaimed. "You ain't Barack and Michelle Obama, and y'all need to get over yourselves."

ET caught up with several stars at the Critics' Choice Awards to get their take on the boycott. "I don't know if avoiding it altogether is going to help, but I just think we have to continue to move forward," Niecy Nash explained. "We have this awareness and this spotlight -- we've got to look at other work. There's other work out there that I think was missed. We've just got to do better."

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