Janet Hubert, a.k.a. Aunt Viv, Has Even More to Say About Will and Jada Pinkett Smith's Oscars Boycott

"I’m a real freedom fighter," Hubert says. "I’m not a pretend freedom fighter."

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Complex Original

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If you found Will Smith's impassioned plea for a diversified Hollywood infrastructure early Thursday morning to be a rousing and long overdue sentiment of genuine concern, then your name is probably not Janet Hubert. Hubert, who most notably played Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for three seasons, already voiced her general distrust of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith's #OscarsSoWhite intentions in a highly publicized video that, for reasons not entirely clear, is burdened with one of the worst video filters of all time:

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Hubert has followed that up with an interview with the Los Angeles Times, taking aim at what she calls the "ridiculousness" of this growing call to action. "I'm a real freedom fighter," Hubert says. "I’m not a pretend freedom fighter. I stand up for other actresses, other people. The Smiths just irked me because they are such pretenders, and everything is a photo op. It’s just self-contrived because her hubby didn’t get a nomination."

Adding that actors are "not brain surgeons," Hubert also reinforced her general dislike of Will Smith and company, just in case she hadn't already made that quite clear: "We are simply and merely entertainment. We take on and wear the masks of characters. That's what we're paid to do. Someone like Will Smith has not come up through the ranks like most actors, so for him to be complaining the most is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen."

According to Hubert, Hollywood is simply an "every man for himself" industry, a point she attempts to prove by once again reminding everyone that she and Will Smith didn't exactly get along for those three Fresh Prince years:

Every day of my life, I’ve had to deal with "old stuff." Every time I try to move forward, somebody brings up “Fresh Prince.” Every time I walk into a room or make a phone call, somebody brings up “Fresh Prince.”

Read Hubert's full interview here

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