Sam Amico
Anyone who knows Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fame knows all about Carlton’s dance. So it’s no big surprise that whenever people see Alfonso Ribeiro — who played Carlton Banks on the show — they ask him to break out his famous moves.
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Newsflash: He doesn’t really want to.
“You come to grips with the idea that that person existed and that reality for you existed and, for me, I’ve come to the realization that when people come up to me on the street and they’re like, ‘Do the dance,’ it’s like, ‘Really? You’re asking me to dance for you?’” he said on NBC’s Today show.
Ribeiro, 51, hasn’t played Carlton since the show ended its run in 1996. He still stays in touch with series star Will Smith — indicating the two spoke after Smith’s famous Grammy’s slap, delivered to Chris Rock.
But that doesn’t mean Ribeiro is irritated that people still think fondly of Banks. Quite the opposite.
“It’s really their experience and you learn to get that empathy where you can kind of say, ‘This is about you and what you had in your house and I can appreciate it.’ I’m still not dancing,” he said on Today. “But I get to appreciate other people’s experience with me as that character.”
Riberio is currently a co-host on Dancing with the Stars on Disney+, so he does appreciate some good routines. Just no longer those that were popularized by Banks.
“They made me play a character, and I was very different from Carlton. I grew up in the Bronx,” he said. “When you, all of a sudden, you’re this guy, a nerdy guy from Bel-Air, it’s like that’s not my life. That’s not who I am. But I get to be me. I get to be my personality, myself. I get to go on there. Whatever comes out of my brain, I get to say.”
I can understand that that dance from a television show from 26 years ago has gotten old to the actor who made the Charlton dance famous. The public even tho they love the character whose dance made famous really ought to stop and think about how that request comes across 26 years after it was made famous. And @ the same time I would hope that by the same token the actor would appreciate the fans that he has been endeared to and made famous and beloved by a dance that they remember him by; so both sides have some consideration to display and grow in personality to be!