March 4, 2022 • 33 mins
Today, host DJ Jazzy Jeff and guest cohost Miles Gray of The Daily Zeitgeist talk to co-showrunner TJ Brady and actor Olly Sholotan (Carlton) about the decision to prominently depict mental health issues on screen in ways that the original ‘90s sitcom could not. Watch Carlton’s continued battle with anxiety and its impact on his relationship with Will in the sixth episode of Bel-Air, streaming now on Peacock.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bell Air the Official Podcast is produced by iHeart Podcast
Network and Peacock. Hey everyone, we're back. Welcome to episode
four of bell Air the Official Podcast. I am d
J Jazzy Jeff, and I am today's guest host, Miles Gray.
You might know me from my podcast The Daily Zeit guys,
but today I have the honor of riding shotgun with
(00:22):
a legend, Jeff. Thank you so much for having me.
I just watched the sixth episode of bell Air, and man,
it had it all. It had me thinking many things,
like having realizations and also feeling sorry for Carlton. That
was episode six for you listen. It was heavy. It
was good to kind of see a little bit more
of a vulnerable Carlton and actually for will to be
(00:46):
the compassionate one. So they pulled on my heart strange
a little bit. Yeah, And I feel like it's one
of those things too, Like in the beginning, people like, man,
I can't stand Carlton. When you start watching this show
and you really get to this point, you will start
being like, I might be Carlton. I'm also dealing with
things that have me living a little bit of internal turmoil.
But you begin to really see the human being, and
(01:08):
I think that's really one of the most beautiful aspects
of this episode. It is, and today we're gonna be
talking about the theme of mental health. The original show,
mental health really wasn't talked about because it really wasn't
talked about that much in the nineties, but here is
really being explored hit on, especially through Carlton. Yeah, in
episode six, for those of you who are watching along
(01:30):
like you should be, you probably saw it. Carlton has
this breakdown and it's a very powerful scene where you
kind of see everything come to head for him emotionally.
I gotta ask you, though, in doing the original series,
what was the most emotional moment that you remember being
a part of. Not to like say that there weren't
that many, but for you, what was a moment that
(01:50):
really pulled at you, that felt, you know, like, oh wow,
I'm I'm part of this well, you know, it's funny.
I think it's the same moment that most people with
the first run of the show was Will talking about
his father. That was something that I think really really resonated,
especially for people who grew up in single parent homes
or in situations like that. That was something that I
(02:13):
think was one of the most iconic scenes on television period.
So I really love the fact that this new iteration
of the show is really pulling on realism and emotion,
kind of like that scene. Right. There's one thing about
you know, TV shows, there's escapism, right, and you don't
always want to talk about the realist stuff out there.
(02:34):
But in this way, I think most of the episodes
they're really bringing to the forefront a lot of nuanced
conversations that people aren't normally having, and I think it's
a really great entry point for people. But why do
you think it's easier to talk about mental health now?
Like you said, wasn't really a topic that was discussed
in the nineties, So why do you think we see
Carlton struggling with anxiety and drugs here, like when that
(02:55):
wasn't necessarily part of the original identity of Carlton. What
I think is interesting It may have been a part
of the original, but we didn't have access like social
media things like that to to bring it to the forefront, right.
I think so many of these things were happening, but
we just didn't see them, and now they're brought to light,
you know, especially through social media. Absolutely, so we get
(03:18):
to talk about all these things mental health and stress
and the evolution of Carlton as a character with our
guests today, all these Sultan who plays Carlton, and t
J Brady, who's one of the show's co showrunners. Ali
is a Nigerian American actor and singer who grew up
in Houston and studied musical theater at u c l
A r Go Bruins shout out MYRMA mater and t
(03:38):
J is a writer and producer who has written for
and produced such shows as Army Wives, Lie to Me
and The Fix. Thank you all for stopping by to
talk with us, Thanks for having us pleasure, thanks for
having us. Just to start off very broadly, this topic
of mental health, it wasn't really something that was overtly
addressed in the Fresh Prince of bel Air. But now
(04:00):
I think with this sort of, you know, much more
realistic reimagining of this world, it really takes the spotlight
and center stage. And I'm just curious what the process
was to to sort of say that, you know, this
is this actually is a very important part of the
telling of this story. Well, when Rashid and I got
the writer's room together on this. A lot of our
(04:22):
writer's room had experienced being a person of color in
a private school, being in a situation like Carlton. And
we also have the opportunity to talk to different people
who had gone through that experience, especially out here in
l A various private schools where people of color do go,
(04:43):
but they are one of just a handful of black
or brown students in the student body. And we talked
about what that experience was like, and they said, it
is rife with stresses. You know, there's all the stresses
of high school and then you add that level of
stress on top of it and a huge differences. The
(05:05):
wealth provides an access two drugs that a lot of
people in what I would say average income households could
never afford, and access to places and experiences that they
could never afford. And that just kept coming up over
and over and over again. And we feel that we
(05:26):
would not have been doing our jobs as storytellers upsetting this,
this reimagining of the fresh Prince of bel Air in
today's world if we didn't address that, and we chose
to address it through Carlton. So it sounds like in
a way, the way the writers aren't function very organically, right, Like,
it's not that you necessarily went into this to say
(05:48):
this is exactly how we're going to depict Carlton Banks.
It's now, if we're going to be real, let's really
rely on the lived experiences of the people contributing to
the writing of the show. And and then like a
I have at this place. Absolutely, it arose out organically,
as you say, It wasn't something that we decided to
shoehorn in for the purposes of drama or making people
(06:11):
sit up and take notice. It has made people sit
up and take notice, which is great, But it arose
from a very pure place of looking at who would
this character be in America? Right? And so I guess
a natural question would be ali for you, how much
did you relate to the pressures that Carlton is experiencing?
What was that process? Like, how was that for you?
(06:32):
So I'm a first generation American, I'm a child of immigrants,
and that you know that comes with a very interesting
pressure of recognizing at all times that my parents fought
tooth and nail to come to this country to give
me the present that I have now. But I remember
growing up it was always so apparent to me that
like I have to succeed do or do not, there
is no try, I have to do great. And I
(06:53):
you know, I think I ali learned how to cope
with that pressure, in that stress in a healthy way.
But I think what fascinated me so much about Carlton
coming into this was that's just such an such an
overly common way to deal with the stress and anxiety
of the pressure of wanting so bad to succeed and
and please your father and and please yourself. But then
(07:15):
also added on top of that what t J was
talking about being the only black person in these really
white spaces. You know, they always say we have to
work twice as hard to get half as far. Um.
I went to U c. L A. And that's a
predominantly white institution. We all had this running joke that
like all the black people on campus knew each other
because there were so few of us. And you know,
(07:36):
in a way, there's this sense of survival that that builds.
It's so subconscious. It's very interesting how certain people are like,
oh my god, Carlton would never do this. But I
think a lot of viewers they're they're getting it. They're like, nah,
the more I think about it, this makes sense. It
makes sense that this is the way that he is,
absolutely and I think that's to me what was the
most intriguing parts about bel Air right, is that we're
(07:58):
really taking everything we saw from Fresh Prince and putting
it through a lens of what's real, right, because I
completely identify with that. I'm half black and I'm half Japanese.
I grew up in l A and I was a
token or I was somebody who was told I wasn't
black enough or Asian enough, and that is toxic. That
really breaks you down and really messes up your sense
(08:19):
of self. And to see that actually manifest in the
sort of trauma and trials and tribulations that Carlton goes,
so I was like, you know what, Carlton suddenly became
the most relatable character to me. Whereas before, you know,
like Jeff, when it was the Fresh Prince days, I
remember Carlton's depiction through the lens of blackness was like
(08:40):
he's corny or he's a sellout. Right when they were
when they were trying to get into that fraternity, that
was like criticism levied at him. And now it's so
much more nuanced right, It means it's a very humane
look at what does that mean to be navigating white
spaces as a black person and the ways we change
who we are to try and adapt and what the
fall out of that is. I think when the things
(09:00):
that really resonated is how this was picked up from
the nineties and moved too and someone said, what if
this was real? And I think this is an exact
real depiction of what it would be like. Carlton would
absolutely be like this, He would absolutely have these issues
(09:21):
in these problems. These are very real world problems that
I think they were nailed in the show of showing
what what actually happened if this was real. I keep
saying that it's very very easy to look at this
version of Carlton and whether it's you know, calling him
a coun calling him a whatever, he's surviving. This is
a kid that, in my opinion, he's he's surviving against
(09:45):
you know, the whiteness of his school, his fragile sense
of blackness, and also he's surviving against his own mind
because on top of this whole thing, you know, he's
so unbelievably anxious about how he's seeve to all times
about you know, how his father relates to him, how
Will coming into his life changes the dynamic in his family,
(10:08):
and you know he's acting out because yeah, let's not
forget he is sixteen, you know what I mean. This
isn't like a twenty five year old adult who has
the emotional intelligence to catalog everything and go, Okay, this
is how I feel about this. Like he's sixteen and
he's just trying to survive, right, And the way you
start to phrase that, right, you know, because Will coming
into is again another check on not only his masculinity,
(10:29):
his blackness perceived blackness. Are you as black as Will
from Philly? You're just Carlton from bel Air? And again,
you know, I think of really underrated aspect of operating
in a predominantly white society is you're constantly having to
check yourself to make sure you're kind of not rocking
the boat or you're not trying to make a big
(10:50):
show of things. So for someone in a developmental phase,
you can see how that could be exceptionally insidious and
and and hurtful. But which brings me to the moment
right where you have your breakdown, uh in episode six,
where it's actually Will who is the shoulder that you
lean on in that moment. I can't go out there
(11:11):
like this man, I can't find well, just rest up. Okay, man,
it's gonna be I M gotcha, t J. I'm curious.
(11:33):
We see the dynamic between Carlton and Will, that how
much tension there is there. But this is like a
moment where we're sort of seeing them begin to really
connect to each other. Was that intentional? Was that just
sort of like it made sense in the writing of it.
Maybe we wanted it to be Will or or how
did how did we kind of get to that point?
We thought it was natural that it would be Will
because despite their apparent differences where they grew up and outlooked,
(11:59):
there not that different from one another. If you think
about it. They're both very cool cats. Okay, Carlton at
lacrosse excels, Will excels at basketball. They are both people
of color in a predominantly white space. They have small
things that get magnified because the pressure and the crucible
(12:20):
that they've been put in in the situation they're in.
But ultimately Will would be the one to understand Carlton
and how he's feeling and what He's going through better
than anybody, and that's what we wanted to reflect, and
it seemed only natural. And I think when people watch
that scene, they're going to completely understand and agree. And
(12:40):
I think both actors knocked it out of the park. Yes,
that was very powerful. I think that scene was probably
my favorite scene in the film, in the in the
whole season, because it's just I think it's a very
cool turning point in Mollin Carlton's relationship, first of all,
but then also on a larger scale, there's a shot
at the end that I don't I don't know if
it makes it in yet, but there's a shot at
the end where Will is just holding Carlton, as you know,
(13:04):
Carlton's just in his arms. And I think that that
speaks so much too male relationships, because what was the
last time on TV you saw two men, two straight men,
like platonically embracing each other and and offering each other
emotional support. I think that this show does such a beautiful,
beautiful job of speaking to so many aspects of mental health,
(13:24):
because yes, it's one thing to highlight, oh, you know,
there are people that struggle with mental health, but also
to highlight ways in which you can support someone going
through a mental health crisis. I just think it's beautiful.
It seems like, you know, like a nineties depiction of
someone in like a mental health crisis will be like, oh,
they're freaking out, you know what I mean? And it
(13:45):
was there wasn't a lot of empathy going towards somebody
who was having some kind of emotional crisis. And I'm
curious for you, Jeff, seeing the show and the version
that Carlton was in the series you were in versus Now,
how have you even seen an evolution just generally even
amongst your peers, your your family and friends, what the
perception is of mental health and how important it's become.
(14:07):
Because I feel like it's only recently we're being more open,
especially in the black community, talking about mental health. Well,
I mean, we didn't talk about it, not to be insensitive.
It was the crazy person. You know, it was very dismissive.
You know, no one really understood the pressures that people had,
especially in the inner city that you have that. Um,
it wasn't until recently that people really started to open
(14:30):
up and it became a thing that people started dressing
and trying to fix. So this was so perfect to
watch because what t J said, Will and Carlton are
not that different. Matter of fact, Will probably has more
experience in dealing with that than Carlton does. That's the
(14:50):
reason why he could be the one to embrace him
and say I got it. See I understand. How do
you think this experience is going to impact and Carlton
Carlton's relationship going forward? And show you know, without don't
have to reveal too much, but I'd imagine this is
a turning point. Yeah, well we know how it impacts
is Ali said. It is a turning point in their relationship.
(15:12):
Carlton being that vulnerable in front of Will, after all
the puffing at each other's chest and going at each
other and trying to take each other down a peg
and competition for attention in the home and in the school.
That vulnerability and Will's willingness to accept that vulnerability and
comfort Carlton is a turning point. It doesn't happen overnight.
(15:35):
It's not like all of a sudden the next day
everything's healed. But they're on the way to a different
relationship after that moment. And so that was a very exciting.
I think I said that to you in Jabari before
the filming of that scene, right always, we had a
little a little meeting before that scene and what it
meant and how important it was, not just for the episode,
(15:56):
but for the series. I feel like on some level,
the audience knows or hopes, at least you know, based
off of what we know of the original, that it's like, Okay, well,
Carlson Will should eventually become friends. Right. I think like
the writers really did sort of have this very challenging
issue of when you in a way know where a
specific relationship is going to end, how do you make
(16:18):
it feel organic and make it feel worth it. The
bond that I think that Carlson and Will are going
to have, like, I think, seems like this justify that
in a way, like that that brotherly, that deep, like
look I got you no matter what till the ends
of the earth. I don't getting chills even just talking
about it. I want to be clear that a different
(16:38):
relationship or a more brotherly or friendly relationship does not
mean a relationship free of conflict. Some of the biggest
conflicts we have are with people we love who are
members of our families. It's not It doesn't mean like
all of a sudden, they're you know, best friends, chipping
down the scares together, singing songs. There's plenty of conflict
in their future. The con flick, you know, it's anchored
(17:01):
in a different place. That's all it means. But there
still will be conflict in drama and plenty for people
to get spun up and get emotional and tweet about
if they want to. Hey, t J, I got a
question for you. I want to know what made you
decide to make Carlton so much more complex than it
was in an original series. UM part of it is
(17:21):
again talking to a lot of people with similar experiences
and having some of those people in our writer's room.
A lot of people in Carlton's situation. We're cool, you
have money, you have athletic ability. Um, you're smart, you're
intelligent in a lot of these private school spaces. That
makes you cool, That makes you a somebody. But every
(17:45):
single one of the people who had that, a lot
of them expressed a concern they didn't know if it
was am I really cool? Am I kind of a
token ized version of cool so that all these rich
white kids can say, look at my black friend there's
no way I can be racist. So there's an uneasiness
about the coolness that you have, which right there, that's
(18:09):
the levels and levels of complexity and stress on a
sixteen year old brain is just ripe for minding great
story out of and so that's kind of where it
came from, right and even like with like the relationship
between like Lisa and Carlton. Uh, you know, in this episode,
she has this poignant line that you know, seems to
(18:30):
resonate with Carlton, where she says, Honestly, I think Carlton
uses my vulnerability as a way to get closer to me.
Tiptoeing around his emotions is exhausting, and I just I
want to work through my own ship without trying to
navigate his. What were you bringing to light with the
sort of dynamic between Lisa and Carlton as it relates to,
(18:52):
you know, his emotions. I mean, Lisa and Carlton go
way back. Their families are very close, they were very close.
Part of the stuff that Moan, the actress who plays Lisa,
brought to it was having a discussion with us and
I think with Ali about what she liked about Carlton.
How did they get together. You know the fact that
they were sort of drawn to one another by virtue
(19:13):
of being in a similar situation of gravitating towards somebody
else who understood what it was like to to have
to operate in this white space as a person of
color and how feelings can grow out of that. On
top of the family history and with the Lisa character,
we wanted to dimensionalize her deeper than just the love
(19:35):
interest or the point of friction in a love triangle
between Carlton and Will. She had to have her own
point of view, her own wants, needs, desires, fears, flaws, vulnerabilities.
Getting to know who this character was after we cast
her and saw what she could do in the earlier episodes,
(19:58):
It wasn't that difficult to put lines like that coming
out of the mouth of that character, because it was
clear she was a three dimensional, intelligent character who would
have complicated feelings herself. Yeah. I thought it was interesting
when Phil came in and Carton actually thought he was
caught feeling better son, Uh, yeah, a little. I think
(20:23):
I know what happened with you to day? Well, what's
been happening with you? Look, Dad, I'm sorry, Okay, I
can explain that anxiety. You've all seen the the pressure
even putting on yourself to make the day perfect. Re Lisa,
you gotta show yourself some grace son. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
(20:47):
It's been a roller coaster. And the way Phil kinda
lended his support to his anxiety was amazing. It looked
like it freaked Calton now like, okay, I'm busted. Um.
I think it's wow too realized that is Will the
only person that knows that Carlton is doing drugs along
with anxiety. Actually, yes, yeah, Lise does, Lisa. No, Lisa
(21:13):
knows you're into some things. But the only person in
the house, Yeah, Will is really And I think that's
so that he goes back to the writers. I think
that's really great nugget of storytelling in the you know,
the person who Carlton sees is his biggest adversary throughout
this whole life thing ends up being the only person
(21:33):
that meets him with understanding when he sort of uncovers
this really deep, dark secret of his in. My heart
almost sank when I saw that. I was like, oh
my god, here it comes. And he went the anxiety
route and you just kind of picked up Yeah, yeah,
that's it. How important I mean to t J and Alie.
I mean, I get that, you know, the impetus to
(21:54):
have Carlton, this portrayal of him was rooted in the
experiences of the writers and and really wanting to honor
those experiences. Um, but what are like for the two
of you? Your hopes by Obviously it's a very conscious
decision to say we're going to center mental health as
a dimension of this narrative so people can have a more,
you know, deeper understanding of these characters. What is your
(22:15):
hope that what the viewers take away from that, whether
that's someone who is open about their anxiety and they're like, oh,
look they're they're good. I see someone like me also
going through something, or maybe someone who is shying away
from those kinds of talks and made, you know, on
some level, identify with what they're saying. Yeah, I mean,
part of it is um allowing people who are struggling
with the same thing to identify with it, to see
(22:37):
it portrayed, to see that they are not alone. Another
part of it is, and I can't speak to this,
but it comes from my writing partner Rashid, the unwillingness
you know, in some pockets of the black community to
acknowledge some of the mental health difficulties that that members
(22:58):
of the community are having, and it was a portant
to Rashid to portray that and hopefully maybe start a dialogue.
Even if one viewer gets to have a dialogue with
their family about this because of this show, then that
is a huge win. And that is you know, using
this show for a bigger platform than just entertainment. And
(23:18):
much like the original series would highlight issues that caused
discussions that at the time we're very you know, groundbreaking,
we we aspire to do the same thing. Yeah. I
found that every project, every um, every character I place
sort of teaches me a lesson. The thing I learned
with Carlton is the strength of compassion. And that's what
(23:40):
I hope people get to take away in the struggle
with mental health, the sense the lesson of compassion both
for yourself and patience with yourself and patients with sort
of where you are in the journey of life. Because
I you know, I also think so much of the
pressure for Carlton is I'm going to say, a lack
of compassion for just where he is in life. You know,
what I mean, he's so frustrated with having to deal
(24:02):
with all of this that he's lashing out, but that's
sort of supported and fixed with compassion from Will. I
think that my hopeful biggest takeaway is the strength of compassion.
This is all I think part of this really beautiful
part of this reimagining of the show is that it's
it makes everything suddenly more relatable, suddenly much easier to
(24:23):
talk about. And I had a question where, like, as
it relates to you know, how Carlton copes right by
using drugs, um what was sort of the thought process
behind his drug use, how that works? And like you
were saying too that there is a class element to it, right,
is that because of the wealth of the family, drugs
are very easy to come by. And I'm sure in
(24:44):
a culture of a very affluent, you know area where
I've seen firsthand sometimes it's easier to take substances than
actually talk about your problems. How did that kind of
weave into how you wanted to portray this story arc.
The environment that Carlton has to live in is full
of this. I mean, in the pilot episode, there at
a party and just people doing lines on a table,
(25:06):
in full view of everybody, because that's what people do
at these parties, That's what these kids do at these parties,
and they have access to it, and it's not only
tolerated it, it's part of what makes them cool. And
just portraying that, you know, just trying to root the
show and ground the show, and they here and now
(25:27):
is where that part came from. And Ali, I'll kick
it to you. I do also want to point out
that again, on a first watch, it's very very easy
to just kind of like, yeah, you know, Carlton just
doing lines whenever he pleases. But I think it's very
very interesting to to look at when he does these drugs.
(25:50):
In the first episode, he does it before a party. Um,
he does it while at the party. In in the
third episode, he does it, you know, after that lacrosse
game that no one shows up to and he's he's
starting to have an anxiety attack. In the sixth episode,
he he does it after hearing what Lisa says about
(26:13):
him and so and actually there was in the fourth episode.
The scene didn't make it to the final cut, but um,
I think it was just because of time. But in
it it's right before the family gets together to talk
about what they're gonna do for the campaigning. Carlton's in
his room and he's practicing. Uh you know, hey, you
know I'm going door to door for Philip Banks. You're
(26:33):
next to l a district attorney. YadA YadA, YadA um.
But he's really anxious about it, and he's just not
you know, he's fumbling over his words. He's and and
he's just like panicking and he paces around his room.
He looks over to his closet and he goes and
he doesn't ligne. And so again in all of this,
you see that he's not just doing this for fun.
This is his way of coping with his mind racing
(26:57):
with his mind and his heart racing and pink hanging,
you know, emotions back and forth. This is sort of
the way to kind of blur everything out, you know
what I mean. Everything is so much more nuanced. Right.
It's not just the idea that, oh, this person abuses
drugs because their life is so chaotic. You're also saying,
like just a more an idea of when people decide
(27:17):
to use, if they are if they do hum addictions
they're struggling with. Sometimes people just like I need to
get right before I talk to people. And that's but
I'm in a lot of social situations, so that has
accelerated my drug where my reliance on you know, drugs
and things like that. So it is interesting, like you're
saying that, it's almost again, it is a coping mechanism,
but it's becoming a crutch for him to just be
(27:39):
able to navigate things that are typically shouldn't be an
issue for somebody who's you know, confident, healthy and handsome
and all that exactly. Yeah, Yeah, Like for the six
year old kid who everyone looks at is just like
super smart, promising future. He's athletic, he's good at sports,
he's popular at school. Like why you know, I like
when I talked him, he was pretty cool. You know,
(28:01):
he was super funny, he was charming, he was all
of these things. It's not everything that glitters is gold, right, Ali,
You spoke about a foundation, love Land that keeps black
women and women of color and helps them get therapy
for mental health issues free of charge. Why is this
organization so important to you? Oh my goodness, I love
(28:22):
the lovel And Foundation. I love, love, love the lovel
And Foundation. Um quick plug. Yeah, as of last year.
I'm probably gonna do this every birthday from now on.
As of last year, for my birthday on April five, UM,
I do a donation drive for the lovel And Foundation.
And it's important to me for a few reasons. A.
You know, we are going through a mental health crisis
(28:44):
as just as a population and specifically as a young population.
You know, we we are going through a mental health crisis,
and a lot of people just don't know how to
deal with how overstimulating life is. UM. And then at specifically,
I think that we place a lot of pressure on
black woman I have. I have a little sister, you know,
(29:05):
she's nineteen UM, and watching her just grow up and
go through life is has been just one of the
most interesting things because we place a lot of pressure
on our Black women to kind of bear the weight
of the world. Are women in general, but specifically black women,
you know, to bear the weight of the world emotionally psychologically,
(29:26):
there is there is so much taxing on the psyche
of a black woman that it represents the impetus and
ability to to give back and rectify that. And on
top of that, it's it's just this really unfortunate thing
that we're going through this mental health crisis, and access
to mental health solutions is specifically limited to the very
(29:46):
privileged population because therapy doesn't fall under most insurances, like
there are so few. Finding a therapist is a such
a convoluted and difficult process, and then on top of that,
it's usually very, very expensive, So you end up finding
that the people who need act like access to therapy
the most just can't afford it or they don't have
(30:08):
time to find it. That is absolutely beautiful and need it. Now.
I know this might be jumping ahead a little bit,
but I'm curious, Ali, what do you want to see
for Carlton in season two? I mean, to be honest,
I think even with where season one eventually goes, I
think Carlton does still have, you know, quite a journey
(30:29):
to to go on in terms of his struggles with
mental health. I'm excited to see more of him and will.
I remember after Jabari and I filmed that scene and
so six, we're like, oh my god, we like probably
get to hang out on camera now, maybe because like
Jabari and are you know, we're good friends and like
we hang out outside of work, where like every time
(30:50):
we come to work we're just mad at right, like,
can we get one episode? We're just kicking like, yeah,
you know, like Will and Carlton gaming, you know, I
don't know, they work out together. Will teaches Carlton basketball,
like I don't know. Carlton teaches him how to use
across stick. That's That's what I'm going for, right right,
(31:11):
right exactly. He shows you how to write a dirt bike,
you know, yeah, yeah, you know what, t J. I
think I want Will to take Carlton back to Philly.
Carlton learns how to use the word john. He learns
how to use the word bowl. Yo. Okay, I think
we're cooking with gas here. There you go, and you
(31:31):
have a six or s throwback on it's right there,
right there exactly. Okay, that was a fantastic conversation with
Ali and t J. Great insight into Carlton, who's been
making a lot of waves a lot. Yeah. And I
think and for good reason. I mean, like this show
is doing such a great job of giving more dimension
(31:53):
and depth to a character. I think otherwise people just
be like, now, I don't like them, but I think
the more you watch it, you're like, I don't like them,
but I get where they're coming from behind understanding I
am exactly right. Next week we'll be talking about the
themes of social media with Coco Jones who plays Hillary,
and Jordan L. Jones who plays Jazz. And check out
the next episode of bell Air streaming on Peacock next Thursday,
(32:17):
and come back to the podcast every Friday to hear
more bell Air. The official podcast is produced by iHeart
Podcast Network and Peacock. The show is hosted by Me
d J. Jazz and Jeff and by Me Miles Gray,
Supervising producer Mike Coscarelli, producer and mastering engineer by Heed Fraser.
(32:37):
Executive producers from I Heart are Nicky eatre On A
Stump and Me Miles Gray. Executive producers from Peacock are
Lindsay Vogelman, Amber Ferguson and special thanks to Will Pearson
from I Heeart and Michael Scoggin from Peacock were Quash
(33:01):
the Wire
Bell Air the Official Podcast is produced by iHeart Podcast
Network and Peacock. Hey everyone, we're back. Welcome to episode
four of bell Air the Official Podcast. I am d
J Jazzy Jeff, and I am today's guest host, Miles Gray.
You might know me from my podcast The Daily Zeit guys,
but today I have the honor of riding shotgun with
(00:22):
a legend, Jeff. Thank you so much for having me.
I just watched the sixth episode of bell Air, and man,
it had it all. It had me thinking many things,
like having realizations and also feeling sorry for Carlton. That
was episode six for you listen. It was heavy. It
was good to kind of see a little bit more
of a vulnerable Carlton and actually for will to be
(00:46):
the compassionate one. So they pulled on my heart strange
a little bit. Yeah, And I feel like it's one
of those things too, Like in the beginning, people like, man,
I can't stand Carlton. When you start watching this show
and you really get to this point, you will start
being like, I might be Carlton. I'm also dealing with
things that have me living a little bit of internal turmoil.
But you begin to really see the human being, and
(01:08):
I think that's really one of the most beautiful aspects
of this episode. It is, and today we're gonna be
talking about the theme of mental health. The original show,
mental health really wasn't talked about because it really wasn't
talked about that much in the nineties, but here is
really being explored hit on, especially through Carlton. Yeah, in
episode six, for those of you who are watching along
(01:30):
like you should be, you probably saw it. Carlton has
this breakdown and it's a very powerful scene where you
kind of see everything come to head for him emotionally.
I gotta ask you, though, in doing the original series,
what was the most emotional moment that you remember being
a part of. Not to like say that there weren't
that many, but for you, what was a moment that
(01:50):
really pulled at you, that felt, you know, like, oh wow,
I'm I'm part of this well, you know, it's funny.
I think it's the same moment that most people with
the first run of the show was Will talking about
his father. That was something that I think really really resonated,
especially for people who grew up in single parent homes
or in situations like that. That was something that I
(02:13):
think was one of the most iconic scenes on television period.
So I really love the fact that this new iteration
of the show is really pulling on realism and emotion,
kind of like that scene. Right. There's one thing about
you know, TV shows, there's escapism, right, and you don't
always want to talk about the realist stuff out there.
(02:34):
But in this way, I think most of the episodes
they're really bringing to the forefront a lot of nuanced
conversations that people aren't normally having, and I think it's
a really great entry point for people. But why do
you think it's easier to talk about mental health now?
Like you said, wasn't really a topic that was discussed
in the nineties, So why do you think we see
Carlton struggling with anxiety and drugs here, like when that
(02:55):
wasn't necessarily part of the original identity of Carlton. What
I think is interesting It may have been a part
of the original, but we didn't have access like social
media things like that to to bring it to the forefront, right.
I think so many of these things were happening, but
we just didn't see them, and now they're brought to light,
you know, especially through social media. Absolutely, so we get
(03:18):
to talk about all these things mental health and stress
and the evolution of Carlton as a character with our
guests today, all these Sultan who plays Carlton, and t
J Brady, who's one of the show's co showrunners. Ali
is a Nigerian American actor and singer who grew up
in Houston and studied musical theater at u c l
A r Go Bruins shout out MYRMA mater and t
(03:38):
J is a writer and producer who has written for
and produced such shows as Army Wives, Lie to Me
and The Fix. Thank you all for stopping by to
talk with us, Thanks for having us pleasure, thanks for
having us. Just to start off very broadly, this topic
of mental health, it wasn't really something that was overtly
addressed in the Fresh Prince of bel Air. But now
(04:00):
I think with this sort of, you know, much more
realistic reimagining of this world, it really takes the spotlight
and center stage. And I'm just curious what the process
was to to sort of say that, you know, this
is this actually is a very important part of the
telling of this story. Well, when Rashid and I got
the writer's room together on this. A lot of our
(04:22):
writer's room had experienced being a person of color in
a private school, being in a situation like Carlton. And
we also have the opportunity to talk to different people
who had gone through that experience, especially out here in
l A various private schools where people of color do go,
(04:43):
but they are one of just a handful of black
or brown students in the student body. And we talked
about what that experience was like, and they said, it
is rife with stresses. You know, there's all the stresses
of high school and then you add that level of
stress on top of it and a huge differences. The
(05:05):
wealth provides an access two drugs that a lot of
people in what I would say average income households could
never afford, and access to places and experiences that they
could never afford. And that just kept coming up over
and over and over again. And we feel that we
(05:26):
would not have been doing our jobs as storytellers upsetting this,
this reimagining of the fresh Prince of bel Air in
today's world if we didn't address that, and we chose
to address it through Carlton. So it sounds like in
a way, the way the writers aren't function very organically, right, Like,
it's not that you necessarily went into this to say
(05:48):
this is exactly how we're going to depict Carlton Banks.
It's now, if we're going to be real, let's really
rely on the lived experiences of the people contributing to
the writing of the show. And and then like a
I have at this place. Absolutely, it arose out organically,
as you say, It wasn't something that we decided to
shoehorn in for the purposes of drama or making people
(06:11):
sit up and take notice. It has made people sit
up and take notice, which is great, But it arose
from a very pure place of looking at who would
this character be in America? Right? And so I guess
a natural question would be ali for you, how much
did you relate to the pressures that Carlton is experiencing?
What was that process? Like, how was that for you?
(06:32):
So I'm a first generation American, I'm a child of immigrants,
and that you know that comes with a very interesting
pressure of recognizing at all times that my parents fought
tooth and nail to come to this country to give
me the present that I have now. But I remember
growing up it was always so apparent to me that
like I have to succeed do or do not, there
is no try, I have to do great. And I
(06:53):
you know, I think I ali learned how to cope
with that pressure, in that stress in a healthy way.
But I think what fascinated me so much about Carlton
coming into this was that's just such an such an
overly common way to deal with the stress and anxiety
of the pressure of wanting so bad to succeed and
and please your father and and please yourself. But then
(07:15):
also added on top of that what t J was
talking about being the only black person in these really
white spaces. You know, they always say we have to
work twice as hard to get half as far. Um.
I went to U c. L A. And that's a
predominantly white institution. We all had this running joke that
like all the black people on campus knew each other
because there were so few of us. And you know,
(07:36):
in a way, there's this sense of survival that that builds.
It's so subconscious. It's very interesting how certain people are like,
oh my god, Carlton would never do this. But I
think a lot of viewers they're they're getting it. They're like, nah,
the more I think about it, this makes sense. It
makes sense that this is the way that he is,
absolutely and I think that's to me what was the
most intriguing parts about bel Air right, is that we're
(07:58):
really taking everything we saw from Fresh Prince and putting
it through a lens of what's real, right, because I
completely identify with that. I'm half black and I'm half Japanese.
I grew up in l A and I was a
token or I was somebody who was told I wasn't
black enough or Asian enough, and that is toxic. That
really breaks you down and really messes up your sense
(08:19):
of self. And to see that actually manifest in the
sort of trauma and trials and tribulations that Carlton goes,
so I was like, you know what, Carlton suddenly became
the most relatable character to me. Whereas before, you know,
like Jeff, when it was the Fresh Prince days, I
remember Carlton's depiction through the lens of blackness was like
(08:40):
he's corny or he's a sellout. Right when they were
when they were trying to get into that fraternity, that
was like criticism levied at him. And now it's so
much more nuanced right, It means it's a very humane
look at what does that mean to be navigating white
spaces as a black person and the ways we change
who we are to try and adapt and what the
fall out of that is. I think when the things
(09:00):
that really resonated is how this was picked up from
the nineties and moved too and someone said, what if
this was real? And I think this is an exact
real depiction of what it would be like. Carlton would
absolutely be like this, He would absolutely have these issues
(09:21):
in these problems. These are very real world problems that
I think they were nailed in the show of showing
what what actually happened if this was real. I keep
saying that it's very very easy to look at this
version of Carlton and whether it's you know, calling him
a coun calling him a whatever, he's surviving. This is
a kid that, in my opinion, he's he's surviving against
(09:45):
you know, the whiteness of his school, his fragile sense
of blackness, and also he's surviving against his own mind
because on top of this whole thing, you know, he's
so unbelievably anxious about how he's seeve to all times
about you know, how his father relates to him, how
Will coming into his life changes the dynamic in his family,
(10:08):
and you know he's acting out because yeah, let's not
forget he is sixteen, you know what I mean. This
isn't like a twenty five year old adult who has
the emotional intelligence to catalog everything and go, Okay, this
is how I feel about this. Like he's sixteen and
he's just trying to survive, right, And the way you
start to phrase that, right, you know, because Will coming
into is again another check on not only his masculinity,
(10:29):
his blackness perceived blackness. Are you as black as Will
from Philly? You're just Carlton from bel Air? And again,
you know, I think of really underrated aspect of operating
in a predominantly white society is you're constantly having to
check yourself to make sure you're kind of not rocking
the boat or you're not trying to make a big
(10:50):
show of things. So for someone in a developmental phase,
you can see how that could be exceptionally insidious and
and and hurtful. But which brings me to the moment
right where you have your breakdown, uh in episode six,
where it's actually Will who is the shoulder that you
lean on in that moment. I can't go out there
(11:11):
like this man, I can't find well, just rest up. Okay, man,
it's gonna be I M gotcha, t J. I'm curious.
(11:33):
We see the dynamic between Carlton and Will, that how
much tension there is there. But this is like a
moment where we're sort of seeing them begin to really
connect to each other. Was that intentional? Was that just
sort of like it made sense in the writing of it.
Maybe we wanted it to be Will or or how
did how did we kind of get to that point?
We thought it was natural that it would be Will
because despite their apparent differences where they grew up and outlooked,
(11:59):
there not that different from one another. If you think
about it. They're both very cool cats. Okay, Carlton at
lacrosse excels, Will excels at basketball. They are both people
of color in a predominantly white space. They have small
things that get magnified because the pressure and the crucible
(12:20):
that they've been put in in the situation they're in.
But ultimately Will would be the one to understand Carlton
and how he's feeling and what He's going through better
than anybody, and that's what we wanted to reflect, and
it seemed only natural. And I think when people watch
that scene, they're going to completely understand and agree. And
(12:40):
I think both actors knocked it out of the park. Yes,
that was very powerful. I think that scene was probably
my favorite scene in the film, in the in the
whole season, because it's just I think it's a very
cool turning point in Mollin Carlton's relationship, first of all,
but then also on a larger scale, there's a shot
at the end that I don't I don't know if
it makes it in yet, but there's a shot at
the end where Will is just holding Carlton, as you know,
(13:04):
Carlton's just in his arms. And I think that that
speaks so much too male relationships, because what was the
last time on TV you saw two men, two straight men,
like platonically embracing each other and and offering each other
emotional support. I think that this show does such a beautiful,
beautiful job of speaking to so many aspects of mental health,
(13:24):
because yes, it's one thing to highlight, oh, you know,
there are people that struggle with mental health, but also
to highlight ways in which you can support someone going
through a mental health crisis. I just think it's beautiful.
It seems like, you know, like a nineties depiction of
someone in like a mental health crisis will be like, oh,
they're freaking out, you know what I mean? And it
(13:45):
was there wasn't a lot of empathy going towards somebody
who was having some kind of emotional crisis. And I'm
curious for you, Jeff, seeing the show and the version
that Carlton was in the series you were in versus Now,
how have you even seen an evolution just generally even
amongst your peers, your your family and friends, what the
perception is of mental health and how important it's become.
(14:07):
Because I feel like it's only recently we're being more open,
especially in the black community, talking about mental health. Well,
I mean, we didn't talk about it, not to be insensitive.
It was the crazy person. You know, it was very dismissive.
You know, no one really understood the pressures that people had,
especially in the inner city that you have that. Um,
it wasn't until recently that people really started to open
(14:30):
up and it became a thing that people started dressing
and trying to fix. So this was so perfect to
watch because what t J said, Will and Carlton are
not that different. Matter of fact, Will probably has more
experience in dealing with that than Carlton does. That's the
(14:50):
reason why he could be the one to embrace him
and say I got it. See I understand. How do
you think this experience is going to impact and Carlton
Carlton's relationship going forward? And show you know, without don't
have to reveal too much, but I'd imagine this is
a turning point. Yeah, well we know how it impacts
is Ali said. It is a turning point in their relationship.
(15:12):
Carlton being that vulnerable in front of Will, after all
the puffing at each other's chest and going at each
other and trying to take each other down a peg
and competition for attention in the home and in the school.
That vulnerability and Will's willingness to accept that vulnerability and
comfort Carlton is a turning point. It doesn't happen overnight.
(15:35):
It's not like all of a sudden the next day
everything's healed. But they're on the way to a different
relationship after that moment. And so that was a very exciting.
I think I said that to you in Jabari before
the filming of that scene, right always, we had a
little a little meeting before that scene and what it
meant and how important it was, not just for the episode,
(15:56):
but for the series. I feel like on some level,
the audience knows or hopes, at least you know, based
off of what we know of the original, that it's like, Okay, well,
Carlson Will should eventually become friends. Right. I think like
the writers really did sort of have this very challenging
issue of when you in a way know where a
specific relationship is going to end, how do you make
(16:18):
it feel organic and make it feel worth it. The
bond that I think that Carlson and Will are going
to have, like, I think, seems like this justify that
in a way, like that that brotherly, that deep, like
look I got you no matter what till the ends
of the earth. I don't getting chills even just talking
about it. I want to be clear that a different
(16:38):
relationship or a more brotherly or friendly relationship does not
mean a relationship free of conflict. Some of the biggest
conflicts we have are with people we love who are
members of our families. It's not It doesn't mean like
all of a sudden, they're you know, best friends, chipping
down the scares together, singing songs. There's plenty of conflict
in their future. The con flick, you know, it's anchored
(17:01):
in a different place. That's all it means. But there
still will be conflict in drama and plenty for people
to get spun up and get emotional and tweet about
if they want to. Hey, t J, I got a
question for you. I want to know what made you
decide to make Carlton so much more complex than it
was in an original series. UM part of it is
(17:21):
again talking to a lot of people with similar experiences
and having some of those people in our writer's room.
A lot of people in Carlton's situation. We're cool, you
have money, you have athletic ability. Um, you're smart, you're
intelligent in a lot of these private school spaces. That
makes you cool, That makes you a somebody. But every
(17:45):
single one of the people who had that, a lot
of them expressed a concern they didn't know if it
was am I really cool? Am I kind of a
token ized version of cool so that all these rich
white kids can say, look at my black friend there's
no way I can be racist. So there's an uneasiness
about the coolness that you have, which right there, that's
(18:09):
the levels and levels of complexity and stress on a
sixteen year old brain is just ripe for minding great
story out of and so that's kind of where it
came from, right and even like with like the relationship
between like Lisa and Carlton. Uh, you know, in this episode,
she has this poignant line that you know, seems to
(18:30):
resonate with Carlton, where she says, Honestly, I think Carlton
uses my vulnerability as a way to get closer to me.
Tiptoeing around his emotions is exhausting, and I just I
want to work through my own ship without trying to
navigate his. What were you bringing to light with the
sort of dynamic between Lisa and Carlton as it relates to,
(18:52):
you know, his emotions. I mean, Lisa and Carlton go
way back. Their families are very close, they were very close.
Part of the stuff that Moan, the actress who plays Lisa,
brought to it was having a discussion with us and
I think with Ali about what she liked about Carlton.
How did they get together. You know the fact that
they were sort of drawn to one another by virtue
(19:13):
of being in a similar situation of gravitating towards somebody
else who understood what it was like to to have
to operate in this white space as a person of
color and how feelings can grow out of that. On
top of the family history and with the Lisa character,
we wanted to dimensionalize her deeper than just the love
(19:35):
interest or the point of friction in a love triangle
between Carlton and Will. She had to have her own
point of view, her own wants, needs, desires, fears, flaws, vulnerabilities.
Getting to know who this character was after we cast
her and saw what she could do in the earlier episodes,
(19:58):
It wasn't that difficult to put lines like that coming
out of the mouth of that character, because it was
clear she was a three dimensional, intelligent character who would
have complicated feelings herself. Yeah. I thought it was interesting
when Phil came in and Carton actually thought he was
caught feeling better son, Uh, yeah, a little. I think
(20:23):
I know what happened with you to day? Well, what's
been happening with you? Look, Dad, I'm sorry, Okay, I
can explain that anxiety. You've all seen the the pressure
even putting on yourself to make the day perfect. Re Lisa,
you gotta show yourself some grace son. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
(20:47):
It's been a roller coaster. And the way Phil kinda
lended his support to his anxiety was amazing. It looked
like it freaked Calton now like, okay, I'm busted. Um.
I think it's wow too realized that is Will the
only person that knows that Carlton is doing drugs along
with anxiety. Actually, yes, yeah, Lise does, Lisa. No, Lisa
(21:13):
knows you're into some things. But the only person in
the house, Yeah, Will is really And I think that's
so that he goes back to the writers. I think
that's really great nugget of storytelling in the you know,
the person who Carlton sees is his biggest adversary throughout
this whole life thing ends up being the only person
(21:33):
that meets him with understanding when he sort of uncovers
this really deep, dark secret of his in. My heart
almost sank when I saw that. I was like, oh
my god, here it comes. And he went the anxiety
route and you just kind of picked up Yeah, yeah,
that's it. How important I mean to t J and Alie.
I mean, I get that, you know, the impetus to
(21:54):
have Carlton, this portrayal of him was rooted in the
experiences of the writers and and really wanting to honor
those experiences. Um, but what are like for the two
of you? Your hopes by Obviously it's a very conscious
decision to say we're going to center mental health as
a dimension of this narrative so people can have a more,
you know, deeper understanding of these characters. What is your
(22:15):
hope that what the viewers take away from that, whether
that's someone who is open about their anxiety and they're like, oh,
look they're they're good. I see someone like me also
going through something, or maybe someone who is shying away
from those kinds of talks and made, you know, on
some level, identify with what they're saying. Yeah, I mean,
part of it is um allowing people who are struggling
with the same thing to identify with it, to see
(22:37):
it portrayed, to see that they are not alone. Another
part of it is, and I can't speak to this,
but it comes from my writing partner Rashid, the unwillingness
you know, in some pockets of the black community to
acknowledge some of the mental health difficulties that that members
(22:58):
of the community are having, and it was a portant
to Rashid to portray that and hopefully maybe start a dialogue.
Even if one viewer gets to have a dialogue with
their family about this because of this show, then that
is a huge win. And that is you know, using
this show for a bigger platform than just entertainment. And
(23:18):
much like the original series would highlight issues that caused
discussions that at the time we're very you know, groundbreaking,
we we aspire to do the same thing. Yeah. I
found that every project, every um, every character I place
sort of teaches me a lesson. The thing I learned
with Carlton is the strength of compassion. And that's what
(23:40):
I hope people get to take away in the struggle
with mental health, the sense the lesson of compassion both
for yourself and patience with yourself and patients with sort
of where you are in the journey of life. Because
I you know, I also think so much of the
pressure for Carlton is I'm going to say, a lack
of compassion for just where he is in life. You know,
what I mean, he's so frustrated with having to deal
(24:02):
with all of this that he's lashing out, but that's
sort of supported and fixed with compassion from Will. I
think that my hopeful biggest takeaway is the strength of compassion.
This is all I think part of this really beautiful
part of this reimagining of the show is that it's
it makes everything suddenly more relatable, suddenly much easier to
(24:23):
talk about. And I had a question where, like, as
it relates to you know, how Carlton copes right by
using drugs, um what was sort of the thought process
behind his drug use, how that works? And like you
were saying too that there is a class element to it, right,
is that because of the wealth of the family, drugs
are very easy to come by. And I'm sure in
(24:44):
a culture of a very affluent, you know area where
I've seen firsthand sometimes it's easier to take substances than
actually talk about your problems. How did that kind of
weave into how you wanted to portray this story arc.
The environment that Carlton has to live in is full
of this. I mean, in the pilot episode, there at
a party and just people doing lines on a table,
(25:06):
in full view of everybody, because that's what people do
at these parties, That's what these kids do at these parties,
and they have access to it, and it's not only
tolerated it, it's part of what makes them cool. And
just portraying that, you know, just trying to root the
show and ground the show, and they here and now
(25:27):
is where that part came from. And Ali, I'll kick
it to you. I do also want to point out
that again, on a first watch, it's very very easy
to just kind of like, yeah, you know, Carlton just
doing lines whenever he pleases. But I think it's very
very interesting to to look at when he does these drugs.
(25:50):
In the first episode, he does it before a party. Um,
he does it while at the party. In in the
third episode, he does it, you know, after that lacrosse
game that no one shows up to and he's he's
starting to have an anxiety attack. In the sixth episode,
he he does it after hearing what Lisa says about
(26:13):
him and so and actually there was in the fourth episode.
The scene didn't make it to the final cut, but um,
I think it was just because of time. But in
it it's right before the family gets together to talk
about what they're gonna do for the campaigning. Carlton's in
his room and he's practicing. Uh you know, hey, you
know I'm going door to door for Philip Banks. You're
(26:33):
next to l a district attorney. YadA YadA, YadA um.
But he's really anxious about it, and he's just not
you know, he's fumbling over his words. He's and and
he's just like panicking and he paces around his room.
He looks over to his closet and he goes and
he doesn't ligne. And so again in all of this,
you see that he's not just doing this for fun.
This is his way of coping with his mind racing
(26:57):
with his mind and his heart racing and pink hanging,
you know, emotions back and forth. This is sort of
the way to kind of blur everything out, you know
what I mean. Everything is so much more nuanced. Right.
It's not just the idea that, oh, this person abuses
drugs because their life is so chaotic. You're also saying,
like just a more an idea of when people decide
(27:17):
to use, if they are if they do hum addictions
they're struggling with. Sometimes people just like I need to
get right before I talk to people. And that's but
I'm in a lot of social situations, so that has
accelerated my drug where my reliance on you know, drugs
and things like that. So it is interesting, like you're
saying that, it's almost again, it is a coping mechanism,
but it's becoming a crutch for him to just be
(27:39):
able to navigate things that are typically shouldn't be an
issue for somebody who's you know, confident, healthy and handsome
and all that exactly. Yeah, Yeah, Like for the six
year old kid who everyone looks at is just like
super smart, promising future. He's athletic, he's good at sports,
he's popular at school. Like why you know, I like
when I talked him, he was pretty cool. You know,
(28:01):
he was super funny, he was charming, he was all
of these things. It's not everything that glitters is gold, right, Ali,
You spoke about a foundation, love Land that keeps black
women and women of color and helps them get therapy
for mental health issues free of charge. Why is this
organization so important to you? Oh my goodness, I love
(28:22):
the lovel And Foundation. I love, love, love the lovel
And Foundation. Um quick plug. Yeah, as of last year.
I'm probably gonna do this every birthday from now on.
As of last year, for my birthday on April five, UM,
I do a donation drive for the lovel And Foundation.
And it's important to me for a few reasons. A.
You know, we are going through a mental health crisis
(28:44):
as just as a population and specifically as a young population.
You know, we we are going through a mental health crisis,
and a lot of people just don't know how to
deal with how overstimulating life is. UM. And then at specifically,
I think that we place a lot of pressure on
black woman I have. I have a little sister, you know,
(29:05):
she's nineteen UM, and watching her just grow up and
go through life is has been just one of the
most interesting things because we place a lot of pressure
on our Black women to kind of bear the weight
of the world. Are women in general, but specifically black women,
you know, to bear the weight of the world emotionally psychologically,
(29:26):
there is there is so much taxing on the psyche
of a black woman that it represents the impetus and
ability to to give back and rectify that. And on
top of that, it's it's just this really unfortunate thing
that we're going through this mental health crisis, and access
to mental health solutions is specifically limited to the very
(29:46):
privileged population because therapy doesn't fall under most insurances, like
there are so few. Finding a therapist is a such
a convoluted and difficult process, and then on top of that,
it's usually very, very expensive, So you end up finding
that the people who need act like access to therapy
the most just can't afford it or they don't have
(30:08):
time to find it. That is absolutely beautiful and need it. Now.
I know this might be jumping ahead a little bit,
but I'm curious, Ali, what do you want to see
for Carlton in season two? I mean, to be honest,
I think even with where season one eventually goes, I
think Carlton does still have, you know, quite a journey
(30:29):
to to go on in terms of his struggles with
mental health. I'm excited to see more of him and will.
I remember after Jabari and I filmed that scene and
so six, we're like, oh my god, we like probably
get to hang out on camera now, maybe because like
Jabari and are you know, we're good friends and like
we hang out outside of work, where like every time
(30:50):
we come to work we're just mad at right, like,
can we get one episode? We're just kicking like, yeah,
you know, like Will and Carlton gaming, you know, I
don't know, they work out together. Will teaches Carlton basketball,
like I don't know. Carlton teaches him how to use
across stick. That's That's what I'm going for, right right,
(31:11):
right exactly. He shows you how to write a dirt bike,
you know, yeah, yeah, you know what, t J. I
think I want Will to take Carlton back to Philly.
Carlton learns how to use the word john. He learns
how to use the word bowl. Yo. Okay, I think
we're cooking with gas here. There you go, and you
(31:31):
have a six or s throwback on it's right there,
right there exactly. Okay, that was a fantastic conversation with
Ali and t J. Great insight into Carlton, who's been
making a lot of waves a lot. Yeah. And I
think and for good reason. I mean, like this show
is doing such a great job of giving more dimension
(31:53):
and depth to a character. I think otherwise people just
be like, now, I don't like them, but I think
the more you watch it, you're like, I don't like them,
but I get where they're coming from behind understanding I
am exactly right. Next week we'll be talking about the
themes of social media with Coco Jones who plays Hillary,
and Jordan L. Jones who plays Jazz. And check out
the next episode of bell Air streaming on Peacock next Thursday,
(32:17):
and come back to the podcast every Friday to hear
more bell Air. The official podcast is produced by iHeart
Podcast Network and Peacock. The show is hosted by Me
d J. Jazz and Jeff and by Me Miles Gray,
Supervising producer Mike Coscarelli, producer and mastering engineer by Heed Fraser.
(32:37):
Executive producers from I Heart are Nicky eatre On A
Stump and Me Miles Gray. Executive producers from Peacock are
Lindsay Vogelman, Amber Ferguson and special thanks to Will Pearson
from I Heeart and Michael Scoggin from Peacock were Quash
(33:01):
the Wire
Host
DJ Jazzy Jeff
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