Hilary immediately captures the attention of viewers she’s dressed to impress with chic clothing and killer accessories when she appears on screen, embodying the natural essence of a confident, young Black woman. This is also important for Ashley Banks, played by Akira Akbar, who is the youngest of the bunch at 12 years old and admires her big sister. The actress shares some of her favorite characteristics about Ashley, cute and whip-smart.
“Ashley, she’s a very smart, poise young lady. She is really wise beyond her years, but she’s the baby of the family. And I just feel like she has to know a lot, and that really, she does know a lot. That’s why she’s wise above her years because she knows all about politics and global warming and all that.”
For longtime Fresh Prince fans, the first season of Bel-Air also contains references to the original. “It’s going to be so exciting to watch,” Banks says. It’s going to be all of the characters we know and love, but we just go in-depth with them. We’re bringing them back for a new generation, but there’s a lot of callbacks to the original, a lot of Easter eggs. So, be prepared for that.”
In the show, Holmes adds, “We dive deeper into the conflicts and all the issues that they explored in the original show. We were able to stretch it out and we’re able to peel back the layers and really get more into the origin stories of these characters. So, as nostalgic as the original characters are, you’re still going to get that through us, but you’re also going to get to go deeper.”
Tagged: TV