‘Bel-Air’ Star on His Version of Carlton Finally Growing on Viewers

Olly Sholotan takes his opportunity to portray Carlton Banks on Peacock’s Bel-Air seriously.

“This is the only dream that I’ve had since I was a kid,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve always wanted to create art for a living, so being able to do this is the biggest blessing of a lifetime.”

Unlike the lighthearted cornball of the Banks family that Carlton was in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the reboot reimagines the middle child with deeper issues than simply trying to be cool. Sholotan’s Carlton wrestles with anxiety, developing a drug habit as a way to manage his mental health issues.

And seeing the character in this new light took viewers some getting used to over the first two seasons, with showrunner Carla Banks Waddles and the writers on the series taking note of feedback from viewers.

“A lot of people are like, ‘When is Carlton going to stop being addicted to these drugs? We just want to see him live some life,’” Banks Waddles told THR in a previous interview. “So we wanted to have that balance of staying honest and true to [the story], but also letting him have some joy.”

Now after season three (which released its finale last week), with Carlton back home from an in-patient rehab facility in after publicly admitting to reusing drugs, Sholotan says he can see the audiences sentiment toward his character shifting.

“The response season one was very much like, ‘I can’t stand you.’ But I think what’s beautiful about the way the character has been written is that now he’s in a place where the audience really gets to empathize with him and they see his growth,” he says. “And for me, it’s about telling the story as truthfully as possible, but also protecting my personal peace, decompressing after work and making sure that I’m good.”

Also this season, Jabari Banks’ Will Smith revisited a painful issue he faced in the first season: his strained relationship with his father, Lou, played by Marlon Wayans.

“Marlon brings such a beautiful energy to every scene that we do, there’s always some sort of unexpected element to what he does during the scene, which is amazing,” Jabari tells THR. “That’s the best way to work for myself as an actor, to keep me on my toes, and really stay present in the scene — and he’s always present.”

At the top of the season, Will learned that his father has been living in Los Angeles without his knowledge, and he’s faced with the question of whether he wants to build a relationship with him while also striving to be the opposite of everything he assumes Lou is.

“I think [the story] resonates with a lot of people in their real-life relationships with their fathers or their mothers,” Jabari adds. “That’s been really, really fun and therapeutic to play.”

Adding to the dilemmas Will and Carlton faced were the summer jobs Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes) has forced them to get at the country club where they would normally be patrons. Jabari can relate to his character’s angst.

“My first job was at Six Flags, and I was a mascot; I played Bugs Bunny,” he recalls. “I worked there for one day. It was so hot, and it was only April, and the eye holes were like coins. It was awful.”

Adds Sholotan, laughing, “There’s no story I could tell that would be even close to that. He won with that one. I had some bad jobs in my life, but this is definitely a 180.”

The concept of completely shifting gears to explore new passions is one to which both Jabari and his character can relate, and hope to explore more of with a potential season four. “The word that we used a lot this season was ‘pivot’,” he explains. “With Will specifically, it was like, who am I outside of basketball? We’re pivoting into this new section of life, and I think it’s a beautiful thing that a lot of people can resonate with, especially for me, because I came from playing sports, and now I act and it’s been an interesting journey.”

Adds Sholotan of his path as an actor, “I think the journey through the entertainment industry is an exercise in focus. There’s so much to distract you. There’s the newest whatever, the social media this, someone thinks this. And I think Jabari [would agree], something that we’ve both done our whole lives is bet on ourselves. If all else fails, I know me, I’m going to do it. I’m going to show up and I’m going to do the work. And I think in the same way Carlton and Will lean on that, too, they bet on themselves.”

Bel-Air season three is now streaming all episodes on Peacock.