There’s already early Oscar buzz already surrounding Will Smith’s performance in King Richard, a biopic following Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. Written by Zach Baylin and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the movie was released in theaters and on HBO Max earlier this month. As reflected by its 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s proven to be a big hit with critics, and his former television aunt and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star Janet Hubert also had some wonderful things to say.
Taking to Twitter after watching the movie, the original Aunt Viv posted a video expressing her thoughts. In the tweet, she also said, “King Richard stole my heart, in the same manner that Venus and Serena did on the court! Bravo Will and company. Not since Hidden Figures had I enjoyed a movie so much. I will have to check our all your other movies. A+ a Feel good movie.”
In the video, Hubert explains that this is actually the very first Will Smith movie she’s ever seen. Without getting into the specifics, she notes that this is because of the decades-long feud held between Hubert and Smith after her exit from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The two have since buried the hatchet with a reunion special on HBO Max which brought in Hubert along with the rest of the original cast, minus the late, great James Avery. Now that Hubert and Smith are on good terms, she finally felt it was time to watch one of his movies, starting with his latest feature, King Richard. And she loved every minute of it.
Back in their Fresh Prince of Bel-Air days, Janet Hubert and Will Smith did not get along very well, and this played a big part in Hubert exiting the show. She was replaced as Aunt Vivian by Daphne Maxwell Reid for the remainder of the series. Ever since, it had been no secret that Smith and Hubert were still not on speaking terms, but by the time of the reunion special on HBO Max, both sides felt it was time to let it all be water under the bridge.
As for King Richard, you can see the acclaimed biopic now playing in theaters. Time will tell if it gets Will Smith an Oscar nomination, but one thing that’s for sure is that Janet Hubert will be rooting for it to happen.
