“From the get-go, I just loved it,” Sholotan says about that particular subplot. It’s a subject that’s often framed as taboo or rendered nonexistent among older generations within the Black community but has increasingly become more accepted as a reality for Black people. In an early episode, we see him snort white powder that he claims is Xanax but is later alluded to being something unprescribed, and we later find out that he abuses drugs to abate his anxiety. “You know, is Blackness something that we perform, or is it something that is inherent to us just because of the way we look? I think it’s obviously the latter.”Īs much as Carlton’s presence can be grating, he’s given equal opportunities for sympathy. “Carlton speaks to sort of the fragility of Blackness in a way,” he continues. “Every Black person with aspiration has experienced this idea of someone in your life telling you that you act white or you’re trying to be white.
“I think that that feeling is something that every single Black person has experienced,” Sholotan notes. It’s common for a young, Black person with a limited understanding of what it means to be Black in America-and of all the complexities we’re allowed to have-police themselves and others in such a way. Watching Carlton navigate his surroundings, you can’t help but feel like the standards of respectability he lives by are partially self-imposed. And I think it was only when I learned to let go of that expectation that I was able to really excel and able to soar.” “And you know, there’s a lot of pressure I put on myself as a younger kid to be great really quickly. I need to be more incredible than whatever incredible is,’” he says. “There was always this understanding that, ‘OK, I need to be the manifestation of wildest dreams. As an immigrant and a child of immigrants, he identifies with the notions of Black exceptionalism and respectability that Carlton faces on the show. from Nigeria with his family when he was 10 years old. “Like, what are they doing with this character? But the more you think about what that character is and his background and what he represents in this show, it just kind of made sense to me.”Ī graduate of UCLA’s theater and film school, Sholotan moved to the U.S.
“There was the initial being taken aback,” Sholotan tells The Daily Beast. Sholotan, who admits he engages with the show’s online discourse, takes all the negative reactions to Carlton in stride, joking that the character has always been a “menace” and that he wanted to make Carlton seem more “villainous.” Still, he says reading the new version of the character that Cooper and the show’s producers had written initially gave him pause. ‘Bel-Air’ Is the Rare Gritty Reboot That Really Works-and a Nice Antidote to ‘Euphoria’ In a later episode, one of those teammates ends up calling the police on Carlton after they get into a fight at a party. In one episode, he defends his white lacrosse teammates rapping along to the N-word to Will, who’s appropriately shocked. Likewise, Carlton’s efforts to fit in with his white, bro-y classmates at his bougie private school have not been well received by viewers. show by Will Smith and now by Jabari Banks), on the reboot, he exists as more of a threat to Will’s new privileged livelihood and, at one point, his life.Ī main conflict on Bel-Air is the tension between the two cousins and the politics they represent within the Black community. While the original Carlton was more of a funny foil to his carefree cousin Will (played on the O.G.
Bel-Air, however, gives Carlton a darker, more antagonistic edge. Anyone who watched the original ’90s NBC sitcom remembers Alfonso Ribeiro’s hysterical take on the snobbish yet delightfully dweeby Banks son and, of course, his iconic dance moves. In particular, viewers can’t stop talking about Carlton 2.0, played by 23-year-old actor and singer Olly Sholotan. But Peacock’s Bel-Air-Morgan Cooper’s modern, dramatic take on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air-has seen a different fate, establishing a loyal audience and becoming one of the funniest trending topics on Twitter.
#Carlton bel air olly sholotan tv#
Most remakes of beloved TV shows invite you to pick them apart and tear them to shreds.
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