“And when I returned to York, they told me to just pack up and go home again.” “I had gone home to London for the weekend,” he says. premiere of Sam Shepard’s two-man play “Ages of the Moon,” and he was in the midst of a national tour of “Alone in Berlin” when the pandemic struck. He was performing in August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” when he was asked to audition for “Fresh Prince” and, many years later, taped his audition for “Ratched” in his dressing room at the Wanamaker theater of Shakespeare’s Old Globe, where he was playing Duncan and the Porter in “Macbeth.” “Did it in my full ‘Macbeth’ regalia,” he says of the remote tryout. Though he may still be best known as Geoffrey, and has a brief but memorable role in Netflix series “Ratched,” much of Marcell’s career has been spent on the stage. It was also a rare chance to work during the pandemic - unlike film and television, live theater has not yet resumed in any way, which has put a pause in Marcell’s still very busy work schedule. “We talked about our experiences, our relationships, our hopes and fears during that period, even our hatreds - and there were some. And while he has spoken about Hubert’s unhappiness with Smith’s dominant role in the show in the past, Marcell says now that everyone was as happy to be there as he was. Fearful of spoiling anything, Marcell keeps fairly mum about the proceedings, saying only that it offers several big surprises. Smith has teased several aspects of the reunion on his Instagram, including a sit-down with Janet Hubert, who played his character’s Aunt Viv until she left the show after Season 3 and began a years-long public feud with him. Uncle Phil, during the cast’s virtual reunion. Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro and other “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alumni saluted the late James Avery, a.k.a. Television Will Smith wipes tears while honoring James Avery during ‘Fresh Prince’ reunion The producers had to keep telling us to stop talking and get back to work.” And to see all the babies as adults and parents it was magical. Now we are all older and - not to give myself airs and graces - it was like the Berlin philharmonic coming back together. When we performed the show back in those days, we were all green, newbies to the television scene. “We hadn’t seen each other in person for at least four years, and it was magical. And while seeing the familiar faces in little squares on his screen was nice, it didn’t compare to the real-life celebration of the ’90s hit that launched Will Smith’s career - and was Marcell’s first opportunity to work with an all-Black cast. “I was like the man in the woods, my hair, my beard were going wild,” he recalls with a laugh. A brief reunion in April via Zoom to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere was not enough. “I can’t imagine doing a drama.”Īnd it was all worth it, he adds. And this was a low-pressure reunion show,” he says. There was me and a chair in a room and one came in, then the other - and if there were adjustments to my costume, I had to make a mental note or write them down. I had my hair done, my makeup and my costume, but the people only worked with me. “Our temperatures were taken, everyone wore masks, except the actors when we were acting. Thrilled to be reunited, in person, with the surviving cast of the 1990s NBC hit that made Will Smith a household name thrilled to see costar DJ Jazzy Jeff fully recovered from his March bout with COVID-19 thrilled to be on the vanguard of the entertainment industry’s slow and careful return to production. It took a little consideration, and the only way to operate is to follow the guidelines - but, of course,” he adds, laughing. I spoke with my wife, my daughter and my son. after all, no one understood princely demands better than Shakespeare.Īnd how could Marcell say no? James Avery’s death in 2014 left a gaping hole in the cast - already bereft of Uncle Phil, the Banks family and friends could never do without their proper English butler Geoffrey.Īs a man of a certain age, Marcell says, “I had to ask myself, ‘Am I willing to risk my life for this?’ But I was flattered that they included me, and I felt certain they would do everything humanly possible to protect us. But when he was asked to join the cast of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in early September to shoot a reunion special for HBO Max, well. In fact, Joseph Marcell may be the only one.Ī longtime Shakespearean actor and board member of Shakespeare’s Globe theater in London, Marcell has spent much of the coronavirus shutdown working to ensure that the hugely popular replica of the 15th century original does not suffer the fate many theaters fear - permanent closure. Not every actor can say he took a mid-pandemic break from fighting for the Bard to fete a prince.
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