You may not know that I wrote a biography of Will Smith, the legendary star of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air several years ago for Greenwood Biographies. Thanks to writing that, I ultimately appeared in Will Smith’s video biography (think A&E but in Germany). It took me 10 years to finally watch the DVD of it, which I did during my whole home downsizing process. It was really odd watching it, but it was better than I thought it was going to be. I really enjoyed appearing in it — I’m in a LOT of it — and it was a unique part of my career. 

Will’s path to success started with The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and the very talented actress, author and designer Daphne Maxwell Reid, who played the second Aunt Viv on the show, was a guest on my Reel Travels podcast. I thought you might be interested in that interview since so many Reel Travelers have gone to Philly for that coveted playground photo.

First, with all the craziness in the world, how are you and Tim (Reid, her husband) holding up? 

We’re doing just fine. Nobody in our family has come down with anything and we have just been blessed that it’s a great time of growth for both of us. 

Awesome to hear. So I’m going to take you back a little bit. I read that you actually started studying interior design and architecture, so on the road from that to Hollywood, was your first goal a career in interior design or to be an actress?

I don’t think I’ve ever had a goal. I have been blessed by my god with a lot of gifts. My life has been journeying to fulfill those gifts. I found myself studying what I was interested in knowing and then pursuing whatever opportunity arose. And the opportunities didn’t arise with interior design and architecture except in my own home. I use all of the information from all of my journeys in every journey that I take. So I’m not one of those that’s goals oriented. 

Okay, so were you a TV and movie buff when you were young and thought that’s what you wanted to do? 

I watched TV and a friend of mine said, ‘I’m doing this theater thing on Saturday, come with me.’ And I went with her and it was a lot of fun. And we got to improvise. We learned a lot of movement and a lot about theater. The group theater workshop became the Negro Ensemble Company, but that was after I had left and gone to college. 

In the 60s, you don’t have a lot of examples of black women making a career out of (TV) and eating well, so that was not on my list of things to do, so I went to college as one was to get my BA and my “Mrs”. And I had some experiences that turned out to be historic, that didn’t start out, needing or wanting to be historic. It just happened to be the time that I was the first to do it, so those are blessings to me, not a goal. I was Northwestern University’s first black homecoming queen. I was Glamour magazine’s first black cover girl and these were just things that happened. I got discovered as a model. My life is just full of wonderful little things where you say, “How did that happen?”

Seventeen magazine had a ‘real girl’ issue and they didn’t use models — they used real girls and I was one of the real girls that they chose in 1967. Wilhelmina, the top New York agency at the time saw the picture and asked me to model when I was in college, so I could fly back and forth from Chicago to New York on a student’s sale and they were paying me $50 an hour. All they were asking me to do was smile and that’s how I became a model. And from a model, my girlfriend threw my hat in the rain for homecoming queen and they selected me for the court. I got elected as homecoming queen. Southwestern University was not really pleased with that. They didn’t put it in a yearbook that year, they didn’t even put my name in the yearbook.

When I asked the editor of the yearbook why I wasn’t in there, he said it wasn’t important this year. I had lots of little experiences that would have stopped but just made me stronger. So I kept going, I decided that Northwestern wasn’t important to me. Believe me when I got famous, they came calling and what did I say? I said, You’ll never get a dime out of a bad experience. 

Good for you. 

Getting into acting was just another step. I did commercials when I was in Chicago after I graduated from college, and I was modeling. I did commercials and this actor named Robert Conrad came to Chicago to do a series. My modeling agent sent me over. We had a great time and we had a good audition. He hired me to be in that show and that’s how I started on television. When I got divorced I moved to Los Angeles and called Robert Conrad and see what he’s doing. He had a show and wanted me to get started on this show. Then I didn’t stop working. 

That’s awesome. Before Fresh Prince was there one show that you wish you could have continued on? Frank’s Place. It was my favorite show. My husband had created it and it was something very new and different in Hollywood. The whole country rallied around this show. We had more TV Guide covers for that show. It was so well received, but it was cancelled from the second season for political reasons that we found out later. So it really broke my heart that that show, which was groundbreaking and wonderful and so well received did not have a second season. 

We’ve joked about how your autobiography should be called ‘How did that happen?’ So you then end up on Fresh Prince of Bel Air? 

We had been doing the shows and we were kind of exhausted and we had bought a farm in Virginia. We were getting ready to move to the farm and my agent says, I got an audition for you. This young rapper is doing a sitcom. I turned the TV and saw the cutest show. For three years, I was at the farm. I did some other pilots and things, some short-lived shows back in LA. And then one day, they called me and said, we have an audition for you for the role in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I liked the show and it took me two weeks of auditioning with probably 200 other women and I got the role. 

What’s the hardest part and stepping into a role that somebody already had and you’re coming in now to take over that role?

Wondering how they’re going to receive you. They have been a family for three years. And then you step into it. What is the reception going to be like? I didn’t even think about the fact that I was replacing somebody, I was just going to work. And they had chosen me because probably of the chemistry that I had with James Avery and because they knew of my career, I was qualified to do the job. I wasn’t trying to be who (Janet Hubert) was. It was no problem for me to stand there and be a part of this new family. I just stepped into the role. And the joy of it was I was received by them very warmly. I was embraced from the minute I got there. They had dozens of roses in my room. 

So many of my Reel Travels podcast listeners have actually made these pilgrimages to take photos on the playground that you see at the beginning of the show. I was wondering if you’ve ever gone to a place after you see it on TV or in a movie and you’re like ‘I have to go there.’

I’ve traveled the world and I have been to places that I had wanted to see up close and I’ve gone to places because I’ve seen them in movies. A playground is a little odd, but I understand. 

Listen to the rest of the interview here.