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Tatyana Ali Talks Exciting Return to Bel-Air arsenic a Teacher
Ashley Banks is backmost successful Bel-Air—but successful a full caller light.
More than 3 decades after becoming a household sanction connected the beloved '90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, archetypal star Tatyana Ali is returning to the franchise connected play 2 of Peacock's melodramatic reimagining of the series.
"I was truly excited," the 44-year-old exclusively told E! News of the opportunity. "I've ever seen Bel-Air arsenic it's ain show, not astatine each a reboot of Fresh Prince. It's its ain world, it's a drama. When it came in, the offer, I truly saw it arsenic an connection for immoderate different job. I was like, 'That's exciting, but fto maine work it and fto maine see.'"
Luckily for fans, Ali adored the publication and jumped astatine the accidental to play a caller relation arsenic a teacher successful the satellite of Bel-Air.
"I loved the mode it was written," she gushed. "But erstwhile I got to the acceptable and I was really on Bel-Air Academy, that acceptable with each the kids walking by successful their uniforms, it was crazy. It was similar thing I've ever experienced. The emotional, intelligence worldly that went connected was weird successful a truly bully way."
In her recurring play 2 role, Ali plays Ms. Hughes, the Bel-Air Academy backstage schoolhouse teacher of the Banks family's youngest kid Ashley (played by Akira Akbar).
"She's taken connected a mentorship relation with Ashley and sees existent brilliance and spark successful her," Ali explained, "and contempt the program that she's allowed to thatch astatine the school, she truly shares with Ashley Black feminist, Black extremist books from her ain library. Ms. Hughes experiences challenges that a batch of teachers crossed the state are experiencing close present erstwhile trying to marque their program much typical of the satellite that we're in. Her tendency to provender the genius and the brilliance, the airy that she sees successful Ashley, is decidedly successful struggle with what she's expected to beryllium doing."
FilmMagic;Alice S. Hall/NBCU Photo Bank
The instrumentality to Bel-Air comes conscionable 2 years aft Ali reunited with Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro, Karyn Parsons and the remainder of the archetypal Fresh Prince formed to observe the series' 30th anniversary. And it's an acquisition that continues to determination the star.
"I loved each minute," she admitted. "I thought that the producers did a truly bully occupation of distilling what it's similar erstwhile we each travel unneurotic and however it feels. It was conscionable amusive to walk clip with each other. Over the years possibly it's 2 of america oregon 3 of us, but to person america each unneurotic again, it conscionable felt bully it was truly fun."
Peacock
While Ali revealed "we each person a substance chain" to enactment successful interaction each these years later, determination is 1 idiosyncratic successful peculiar she's remained adjacent to.
"I astir apt speech to Karyn the most, she played Hilary connected the archetypal show," she noted. "We speech a lot. She's my large sister for real."
As for Fresh Prince's decades-long legacy, Ali says she ne'er dreamt the bid would inactive beryllium resonant with viewers today.
"You cognize you're having amusive astatine the time, but for thing to past truthful galore decades," she said, "it's a existent blessing that thing that you marque oregon are a portion of making could mean that overmuch to people."
Bel-Air play 2 premieres Thursday, Feb. 23, connected Peacock.
(E! and Peacock are some portion of the NBCUniversal family)
Peacock is unrecorded now! Check retired NBCU's streaming work here.
