‘Bel-Air’ Star Jabari Banks on Being Compared to Will Smith and the Power of Gen Z Artists
variety.comSelome Hailu Jabari Banks is leaning into the comparisons to Will Smith.The 23-year-old stars as Will in Peacock’s “Bel-Air,” which reimagines Smith’s famed ’90s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” as a drama, but he began modeling his career goals after Smith’s long before the project’s conception.“It’s cosmic.
I don’t know how to explain it,” he says of the uncanny similarities among his story, Smith’s and the fictionalized Will’s. For example, there’s the last name Banks, which he shares with Will’s aunt, uncle and cousins in the show, as well as their shared Philadelphia upbringing.There’s also the breadth of both Banks’ and Smith’s artistry.
Banks tends to show up to interviews with an encyclopedic knowledge of his hero’s achievements. He’s excited to share that he’s a musician as well as an actor, and plans to release a rap single this summer, but he’s just as quick to bring up that Smith had already won his first Grammy when “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” debuted. “I aspire to be like artists who build worlds,” Banks says.Beyond the empire of swagger Smith built in the ’90s between his music and acting, Banks has a few unorthodox role models, including Tim Burton and Walt Disney.
Instead of just drawing on the skills of different performers, he’s focused on making sure that when people see a Jabari Banks project, they know.“When I look at artists like Tim Burton, I see a specific vision for everything that he does.
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