Tatyana Ali Says She Was 'Ready' to Move On From 'Fresh Prince' When It Ended
Tatyana Ali says she was "ready" for 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' to end when it concluded after six seasons in 1996.
During a recent appearance on The Receipts Podcast, Ali opened up about wanting to go to college and explore music at the time.
She also noted that the show's star, Will Smith, had a growing movie career and wanted the show to end on a good note.
"Will was, you know, moving into movie star status, and I remember him saying he wanted to stop it while it was great," Ali recalled of when the time came for the show to end.
"I was ready. I mean, I was sad, but I was like a senior in high school, I wanted to go to college, I was making music, and you know, I'm a teenager, so I was like 'yeah, okay, cool'," she added.
When asked if she felt a moment of finality setting in after that, or an "oh s**t" moment, Ali admitted that she actually didn't, though she did end up missing her castmates.
"No, I did not, " she replied. "I cried, missing everybody. There's always like this blues that you get after a production of like oh, but no, I didn't feel that way, I just felt like, what else am I gonna do? I know that's unusual," she admitted.
"Interestingly, when I came back, I was only gone for four years, I had been acting all my life. I really made a conscious choice to be like 'Oh, I want to be a performer, I want to do this,' and I could not get any work," Ali said.
A reunion special that brought the cast back together came to HBO Max in 2020, while a dramatic reimagining called 'Bel-Air' debuted on Peacock in 2022.
