Alfonso Ribero has revealed that his most famous role as Carlton Banks on the hit TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ended his acting career.
In an interview with Closer Weekly, Ribeiro explained how the role hurt his career more than improved it. Fans fell in love with the iconic character, who made viewers laugh with his dance moves and overly conservative opinions on various topics. According to Ribeiro, he made a huge "sacrifice" by taking the role as Carlton would always be second place to Will Smith's character.
"Playing Carlton on Fresh Prince became a sacrifice. I used to always say doing Carlton was the greatest and worst thing that ever happened to me," Ribeiro told the outlet. "It was one of the greatest roles that I ever was fortunate enough to play, but it was also the role that stopped me from acting again because people couldn't see me as anything else. The sacrifice was not having an acting career anymore."
Ribeiro added that he holds no ill will towards the show and his castmates while reminiscing about the good times he had on set. According to Ribeiro, the cast would meet in Smith's dressing room and get their energy up by listening to music and dancing right before show time.
"It was about the cast and spending time with them," Ribeiro continued. "Before every show, we would go into Will Smith's dressing room, and we'd play music and dance and just have a great energy buildup to get ready for the show. Those are some great memories of just being together."
Ribeiro's acting career wasn't completely over as he landed several roles following the end of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He starred in the sitcom In the House with LL Cool J in the late 90s and landed several directorial gigs on shows such as One on One, All of Us, Meet the Browns, and more.
In one of his latest stints, Ribeiro served as a co-host on season 31 of Dancing With the Stars before becoming the main host the following season.
