There’s one scene Bel-Air‘s Olly Sholotan, who played Carlton Banks, will never forget. It happened in Season Two, when Carlton admitted his drug addiction.
“That’s the best scene that I’ve ever done,” he exclaimed as he recalled pulling it off on set. “It was one of those days where I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna do this because I need to kill it and I need to be incredible. It cannot fall or fall short of any of my expectations.’ As an actor, when you get into that mindset, it can be really dangerous ’cause, you either crumble under the pressure or you rise to it.”
Sholotan didn’t fail. He majorly crushed it. “I remember every single take felt good, every single take. I felt like I was locked in; I was speaking from a truthful place.”
But the real silver lining to this moment was his father’s reaction. “Getting to watch the episode, my dad pointed out, ‘You did the ‘Denzel Tear,’ the thing where Denzel Washington’s talking and you get that single tear.’ And I said, ‘I did do the Denzel Tear.’ That is definitely a scene I’m really proud of.”
With the show airing its final episodes last night, EBONY sat down with the actor to reminisce about his past four seasons in this reimagined version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, what he’ll miss most about the experience, and what his grind was before he landed the role of a lifetime.
EBONY: Watching the end, it looked like Carlton and Amira’s relationship is going to continue. How do you envision what happens next?
Olly Sholotan: That’s something that me, the writers, and Alicia Pascal Pena, who plays Amira, intentionally wanted to leave open-ended. When you’re destined to be with your person, you have to give it to God, and the universe will bring y’all together no matter what. In my head, they go off to college, meet other people, come back together, but we’ve left it open-ended. I’m really happy with that.
You played serious storylines, like Carlton’s addiction. How did you handle that?
As a cast, we’re just really supportive. You’re only able to go to those really dark places as an actor when you feel safe. We know that the show, in a lot of ways, felt like a higher calling, which sounds like a crazy thing to say about a television series, but this one is one of the most iconic and beloved IPs of all time. It was heavy, and it got hard on set sometimes, but I think remembering what we did here to do makes it feel worth it.
People can’t stop vibing off your recreation of Will and Carlton’s iconic dance scene from the original series.
Jabari Banks (who played Will) and I had never really done any dancing in the show until this moment. Our choreographer, Chloe Arnold, is part of the Syncopated Ladies, and when we found out we were doing this dance, the production team hit her up and said, “All right, it’s finally time.” That was just food for the soul, to do the dance step for step and then be able to add on our own to it. I got to do a little kick-up and jazz split. Look, Jabari won’t admit this, but I was teaching him a little, and he can hold his own. He’s a solid dancer himself.
Will Smith made a cameo at the series’ end. What did that mean to you?
One of the coolest things about Will Smith is that he introduces himself to every single person in the room when he comes in. He will go, “Hey, there, I’m Will,” which is crazy ’cause it’s like, we know exactly who you are. But that’s the type of humility that we were working with on the show. He championed us from the very beginning. And he was always there. He would always tell us to get out of our own heads and trust ourselves. He’d say, “The thing that you’re doing, the thing that we all chose you to do, go for it. And I promise it’ll be all.”
What will you miss most about Bel-Air?
I’ll miss that cast, honestly. I’m proud of the character and how I was able to show this transition, the conversations we’ve had about race and identity and him going to an HBCU at the end, that’s beautiful. But getting to go to work every day and spend it with some of the most incredible artists that I know and some of my closest friends, people that have become like family to me, that is something that I can’t take for granted and something I will miss very, very dearly.
That campfire scene, we shot on that exact same beach in Season One. It was one of our first days on set, actually, Jabari, Simone Joy Jones and me. In that last campfire scene, we’re barely acting, if I’m being really honest with you. That scene is just raw from the heart. When Simone looks up, she goes, “I’m gonna miss you guys.” Yeah, that was just us.
How have you, by being on the show, become a better version of Olly?
I have become a more patient person. As people, we get focused on preconceived notions. When you meet someone for the first time, the way they make you feel is who you think they are. But I think playing Carlton has really taught me how much lives under the surface, and how much we have to be kinder to each other and to ourselves. Carlton’s whole problem is that he hasn’t found his own self-love or self-acceptance. I learned compassion. Not that I didn’t have it before, but it’s now a 10 or a 12.
Growing up in Nigeria, how has that affected the way you approach work and life?
Being Nigerian, there’s a hunger that we have. There’s a drive that our people have that, I’ll be honest, I don’t quite know where it comes from, maybe it’s in the soil. My parents have always instilled in me this idea that nothing good is easy and nothing easy is good. So, I have such comfort with being uncomfortable. I always say there’s nothing that’s changed my life that I wasn’t ready for.
I remember when I got the call that I would be playing Carlton Banks, I put the phone down and thought, I have to do this now. It’s one thing to get the job, but now I have to do it every season, and it needs to stay good. That was a really uncomfortable place for me to be, because I wasn’t entirely sure I could. I don’t know if any of us were entirely sure.
But embracing that discomfort, that you’re not gonna know every answer before you start the test, and your goal is to figure it out, I think that has really served me well throughout my career so far.
What’s next for you?
I want to do movies. Movies are what made me fall in love with this art form. I’m working on a lot of music right now. If I’m not on set, I’m in my studio; I spend 90% of my time there. I’m in this place where I’m just reading so many scripts. I’m meeting people I’ve admired since I was a kid. It feels a little surreal if I’m being honest. I think it’s just about taking it a step at a time, and whatever finds alignment, I’m really excited for it.
There has been a lot of talk of Damson Idris being the next Black Panther. But looking at you, I get a Chadwick Boseman vibe. If the opportunity arose to join the Marvel world, would that be something you would consider?
Oh my God, of course. Of course, of course. Is that even a question? I think what Marvel has done with their slate has just been a shared cinematic universe. To join a franchise as specific as Black Panther that has so much to say about blackness, identity and the African diaspora and what our responsibility is as a people? Yes. A hundred thousand times, yes. I don’t gotta work on the accent. I already have it.