Kathy Griffin Says Will Smith 'Ignored Me All Week' During Her 1990 Guest Stint on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Kathy Griffin is dishing about her guest role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

On the most recent episode of her recently launched YouTube show, Talk Your Head Off, the comedian, 64, recalled working with star Will Smith in the 1990 episode, which aired during the beloved series’ first season.

“This was the first big gig I had,” she said, adding later that Smith “did not talk to me until show day.”

Griffin said that the episode was filmed before the Fresh Prince series premiere even aired, and noted that at the time Smith was primarily known as “the Fresh Prince,” one half of hip-hop act DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.

“So, then it came to show night,” Griffin recalled. “Remember, Will was this super-famous guy. So, when I finally got to talk to him on shooting day, which was Friday, I said, ‘What would you like me to call you, Fresh Prince or Will?’ And he said, ‘You can call me Will.’ So I did, and I was, you know, nervous around him, because I’d seen all his videos and Jazzy Jeff was there for a day, which was great, and the live audience went crazy when they saw Jazzy Jeff. He may have even DJ’d, if I recall correctly.”

Griffin explained that Smith had “ignored me all week, because he’s launching a gigantic show.”

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“I can’t imagine the pressure he had on,” she said. “But I do remember that Friday night when the audience was there and it was time to actually roll tape, he really took his time to kind of get to know me a little bit. And he was asking about me and helping me relax. I didn’t tell him I was nervous, but I think he could tell that I hadn’t done a show this big before.”

Griffin also recalled Flavor Flav warming up the studio audience.

“So, it was like a party,” she said. “And I had been to a couple TV tapings of friends of mine that got to be guest stars, and I had never seen anything like this. And so, I remember looking around and being like, ‘Wow, this is how African American shows do it. This is amazing. It’s like a party in here.’ ”