Alfonso Ribeiro told him to make his Fresh Prince character's name "Will Smith."
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Will Smith
TadowScott — 1 year ago(March 12, 2025 06:42 PM)
This was preluded with, "Whatever your character's name is, people are going to be calling you that for the rest of your life." Whether that advice was to be taken with a grain of salt, Alfonso had a valid point. If you google Will Smith or Jerry Seinfeld, the majority of the results are of Will and Jerry off the clock, instead of scenes from their respective sitcoms. Makes me wonder what the google results would be if "Fresh Prince" and "Seinfeld" were literally the only projects on their filmographies.