Page 46 - Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star

Will Smith
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Smith also had to deal with one other tough critic: himself.
He was so nervous about forgetting his lines that he would
memorize entire scripts. Then he would say the other actors’ lines
to himself as they were speaking them. In some of the earliest
episodes, Smith can be seen mouthing the lines on camera.
Although most television viewers did not even notice,
his costars did, and it bothered them. Smith later said,
“When I watch those episodes, it’s disgusting. My
performances were terrible.”8 Smith humbly admitted that
what saved him and the show were the performances of
his more established costars.
Although he was three thousand miles away in
Philadelphia, Smith’s friend and partner Jeff Townes flew
to Los Angeles for a guest appearance on the show.
Townes made his debut in the second episode as Will’s
best friend, Jazz, and continued to play Jazz off and on for
four years. While some episodes of The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air focused on the conflict of a street kid trying to fit
into a wealthy and refined family, others directly
confronted African-American issues. In one episode,
Carlton wants to prove that he is just as black in spirit as
his cousin, so Will forces him to survive in a tough Los
Angeles neighborhood for two days. In another, Will and
Carlton are stopped by police while driving an expensive
car. They are arrested for car theft because the police do
not believe these two young African-American men
could legally be driving such a costly car. That story line
came right out of Smith’s real life. Even after he had made