How playing Carlton in ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ almost destroyed Alfonso Riberio’s career
Alfonso Riberio got his breakthrough after starring in in the classic sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as “Carlton Banks.” His charming dance move had everyone hooked.
Many people always thought the classic sitcom gave him fame, but the actor things otherwise.
Some actors after starring in a particular movie becomes typecast, and that’s exactly what happened to Alfonso Riberio.
After starring in the classic sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alongside wills Smith, many Hollywood producers didn’t want to work with him. This wasn’t because he turned out bad but the reasons might surprise you.
Alfonso Riberio was born in New York city on September 21, 1971. Several of his family members were in the show business so it wasn’t news when Riberio started showing signs that he was going to follow the same route.
Ribeiro recalled in an interview with The Ringer, “As a kid, my dad was my manager, and he always said to me, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do: The more eggs you have in the basket, the more opportunities you have for one of them to hatch when you need them to hatch.”
He continued: “And so we’re just going to learn to do everything. We’re going to learn how to dance, we’re going to learn how to sing, we’re going to learn how to act, we’re going to learn how to entertain, we’re going to learn how to talk, we’re going to learn how to read. We’re going to be well-rounded in the business.”
He went into show business at the age of 9, in 1980 and got a role in the series of Oye Willie and went on to work on other productions.
Alfonso was also part of the young dancers in the Michael Jackson’s legendary pepsi commercial. At the age of 10 he was already releasing singles and had a record deal.
Alfonso got to be part of the NBC production, Fresh Prince and his character became one of the most popular on the show, airing 148 episodes.
Alfonso became known as Carlton rather than Alfonso and felt that it affected him getting roles as he was typecast.
Ribeiro explained, “I had what I love taken away from me because I won. When you do a role like Carlton and people love the role, and you do the job so well that they essentially tell you that you can’t do it anymore because we can’t see you as anything else, it is a very difficult thing to deal with.
It was like, ‘Wait a minute, but I did it well. I did my job. I did what I was asked to do, I made you believe that that’s who I am.’ That’s what an actor is supposed to do. And then I was punished for it. Because then I didn’t get to do what my craft was. I didn’t get to do it anymore.”
He believes typecasting must be stopped.
Today he lives with his family and having the best time of his life.
Facebook Comments