The Emotional Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion

Will Smith paid tribute to Uncle Phil (James Avery) during The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion.

The off-one reunion special was released on Wednesday (18 November) on HBO Max and included the cast of the hit 1990s sitcom. Together they discussed their time on the show and what it was like working with the late Avery, who died in 2013 aged 68.

Will described how the actor had always “pushed” him to be the best and use his position to “elevate your craft”.

“I remember in one of my favourite and most famous scenes from Fresh Prince – the father episode – James Avery was this six-foot-four, 300-pound stage-trained Shakespearean beast and I’m the little rapper from Philly under him and I wanted him to think I was good,” Smith said.

He went on to say “I wanted him to be proud of me… we come to that scene and I was like, ‘I want to deliver this scene so bad’… I flubbed my line on the take and I messed it up in front of the audience and my mind snapped and I’m like, ‘Ahhhh.’ James says, ‘Hey, right here… use me.’”

“With the scene that we do, it’s the scene that ends being in the episode. And I fall into his arms at the end of the scene, he’s holding me and he’s holding me. He whispered into my ear, ‘Now that’s acting,’” Smith tearfully added as he had dabbed at his eyes with a tissue.

“It’s like people don’t even know when they’re shaping you and forming you and crafting you. He knew.”