Jabari Banks Talks Bel-Air Season 3, Meeting Will Smith For The First Time & More

hey what's up it's me Deja Vu you know we're in the studio always with your favorite guest today I have one of mine in here Mr Jabari Banks how are you I'm great I'm great thank you for having me Jabari you know what I like you as an artist but like you even better now because I found out you're a Leo oh I'm Leo are you Leo I bring this thing in on July 23rd don't worry about it come on okay you're July Leo though but yeah you know what I'm August Leo there there are differences my sister's in August Leo too and we're a little heror like mod oh okay you think July is better no come on come on we could we can have a competition if you want to Roar listen let me hear your best Roar y'all ain't ready let me hear uhuh see that's a cute Roar that's that's a cute Roar that's a baby Simba Roar right right Roar you remember that scene okay anyway Lion King okay at any rate you are the king the prince Fresh Prince with this Bel Air series but you have so much else going on tell me about your origin how did you start in acting uh so I mean started in high school um and I was doing uh theater in high school I actually started off in choir where I learned how I could sing and then that that I transformed into musical theater and so from then I went to college uh at art school and that's really like where like all my love for the Arts had blossomed and you developed everything and then around 2020 is when I uh I dropped out of school during Co yeah um you know what I'm saying and money you know what I'm saying but I know the story very well yeah you know and um and then but but by that time I had had a manager and and so he was just sending me different uh auditions and so I had been auditioning for about almost like a couple like N9 10 months before the you know uh belir fell fell into my plate and then I sent in the audition and the rest is history and now I'm here look at this come on all right so we're going to break some of this down first off where are you from cuz you're bio yeah no I'm like where's give me some information so I grew up between Maryland and Philly yeah yes so I went to school in Maryland and I went to college in Philly oh so you really do relate to this with the Philadelphia I live with my uncle in Philly um in West Philadelphia actually he went to school BN okay now you were born in PH I mean in Baltimore yeah born in Maryland yeah exactly yeah all right cool so you came from there to there you went to school what was the song that you sung that you realized you could sing Oh I don't even remember what it was that's crazy I don't even remember what the song was okay well after you figured that out which one was your go-to like do you still have a go-to song somebody say yeah I sing um I remember the first song I cried to was I think it was like uh who's Loving You by Michael Jackson Jackson oh my goodness really yeah old so can you can you still hit some of those notes n that's that's that's before the vocal TR that's a 12-year-old me you know what I mean my voice is still pretty high but yeah I had I had a high voice as a child I saw a performance of you singing Usher oh yeah that was on uh on Jimmy Fallon um that's my jam that was fun oh my gosh all right so did Usher see that has he hit you up like yo let's get into the studio man I don't know if he definitely hasn't done that but I don't I don't know if he's seen it I don't know if he's I don't know I don't know okay all right I'm sure he has though all right so you got the role for Fresh Prince yeah what was that like when they called you and told you or did someone send the email was it through your agent no so what happened was um what had happened was so I was auditioning for about a almost two months at that time for that one roll for that one roll maybe like a month and a half um and I had was your competition do you know I I don't know I don't know I never heard of him I don't know no but you know what you know what was great about that it was during Co so like we didn't we weren't going in oh yeah it was auditioning so I was it was just me versus me you know and um and so by this time I had probably done like 15 different auditions you know they had me do the preliminary auditions and then the the callbacks and then the chemistry tests you know and then the workshop sessions and uh the Creator Morgan Cooper he texted me and was like yo they want to do one more creative session with you you know what does the creative s session look like I'm asking myself I'm like yo I've never heard of a creative session what do you mean like what's that I'm like but by this time I'm like 15 auditions in I'm like what else do they need to see exactly if you want me you want me exactly so so I'm in front of the camera you know I got all my audition sides you know I got everything and um you know I press log on to the to the zoom and Will Smith is there right and I'm like yo what's going on and so he's like yo I want to congratulate you you got the part of Will on belir and yeah it's recorded everything's recorded and like that's that moment I it'll live forever yeah that is so crazy I just got to chill right there yeah that was that was life changing and then two two days later I was in LA for the first time good night like that's literally almost overnight plus the 1520 auditions exactly exactly yeah that is amazing so how's it been working do you work with Will Smith do you see him at all and has he given you like the words of encouragement to tell you how to you know portray the role yeah absolutely in the beginning um in the beginning uh you know the communication between me and him was more like you know like um we we were we were really just talking about the art of everything you know what I mean and less about like the the uh character like you know I mean because he had seen my audition already so he knew what I could do it was just more about like yo if you need anything while you're out in La like I got you more of a mentor on that terms like when it comes to career when it comes to you know work versus love life anything you know and so we've had we've had multiple talks about things like that but when it comes to like the work when it comes to like the character of will he kind of leaves that to me you know and I appreciate that yeah cuz I I have a I have I have a sort of Freedom when it comes to the character and like a belief in myself because the OG Believes In Me so I'm like okay cool I'm good that's dope it the way that you feel for this particular era exactly I love it do you feel the pressure though from like the audience how was that like the first season I know you're into it now into it now third season yeah yeah but no for sure I felt it I mean um you know when people heard that they were doing a fresh prince reboot I know a lot of people were like there's no same I'm right here with you my hand is up too cuz I when I when I first heard I'm like what it's my favorite show you know growing up I'm like there's no way they're doing a fresh prince rubu and uh I read the script and I was like oh people are going to actually like this if we get it right yeah you know what I mean if we hit the right tonally do it right the authenticity it just it just all has to be you know like real you know what I mean and um and I think that's what we accomplished season one and season two and so that's why people are coming back for season 3 it looks amazing I'm I'm late I'm a bandwagoner okay was a hater at first you was a hater at first listen I wasn't hating I was I ain't never been on the deja vu show you know what it was this is now is the time now is the time I'm a convert I drunk the Kool-Aid I'm no but it's so good and even my husband and I was telling them I'm like my husband is all about shoot him up kill up movies all this whatever this is good yeah yeah it really is so now fast forward us to the third season it just recently air just launched tell us about what we're going to be oh really yeah today that's right that's right 15 tell us about what we're going to be seeing and where will is going CU this is like a summer part right yeah this is a summer season and so uh this season takes place during the summer and as you know like you know High School in the summer there's a lot to get into around the city especially being in a new city and so will is definitely stepping into his own uh this season and um you know it's interesting because this season uh the theme of it that I that I put on it is called you know pivoting so will isn't playing basketball anymore he's getting into his entrepreneurship bag and you know he's really taking the opportunities that Beller has to offer and he's running with it and so uh he's definitely like really stepping into his own this season I feel what about the other characters how are they playing in there are they going to be any more clashes yeah you know there's a we got a love triangle between Lisa and Jackie and will Carlton's going through his own thing his own situ what I mean he's he's recovering from uh you know he went to rehab and now he's he's back in uh you know at the house now um and special guests and a lot of special guests this season we have Vic menah uh coming in to play with us which is super dope he's dope yeah he's dope we had dle Hill really I really like he's super cool super cool and we have uh Joseph Marcel marel yeah the original uh Je Jeffy now that's going to be interesting can you say what kind of role he's playing or or we we'll wait no yeah you want to wait for this one I'm not going to lie you want to wait because so was super dope like if you if so season two you know Tatiana Tatiana Ali was on the show and the way that she mirrored you know Ashley's character and a way cuz she played her teacher student Dynamic the way that Joseph is going to play into you know Jimmy Jeff's character this this our jeffre character you know what I mean um it's going to be it's going to be great it's going to be great so excited for this is good this is good I was sad I didn't get to do a scene with them wait what so when you're when they don't have the scenes and you're not in them are you on the set still or are you off doing your own thing no I'm not on the set no yeah no yeah yeah yeah you don't want to come in and just bpop around no well I was I was working that day but see the day that he was working we had two units so I so I I get I did get to see him work that day but like if I'm not like in the scene then I wouldn't Goa if I'm not like I don't know this this world you have to break it down for me Jabari I don't know that that acting world you know it's like if you know BOS you know you know I'm saying you ain't scheduled that day I'm off I'm off you know what I'm saying that's usually what it is but you know if I want to like a shadow a director or something I'll come in or I really really want to see a scene because it's it's written really well or so I'm not come in for that but yeah are you looking into doing other parts like uh directing and producing yeah absolutely absolutely that's that's that's a new frontier for me would you want to do like for one of the episodes here have you done that yet not yet not yet I hope to direct an episode coming soon though yes yeah that be fun how else are you expressing yourself I heard that you're working on new music I do yeah I have a song coming out tomorrow actually it's called weekend Drive August 16th yeah all platforms so what is this like is it singing are you rapping what what are we doing yeah singing singing R&B like top down you know driving type of vibe yeah you're you're in what is the highway the 405 is the 45 PCH yeah the P driving for that one is the vibe exactly that's the vibe I don't have a PCH over here what's what's the what's the highway over here the FDR the the hutch whatever it is driving on FDR with the top down yeah crossing the Brooklyn Bridge right yeah crossing the Brooklyn Bridge that's a v over here that's what it's like um who are your favorite artists favorite artists like all time I mean you can just who are you listening to now who am I listening to right now uh it's not reflective of the music that I make um all right well give us both then who you listening to now and who are the ones that you like glean from when you're in the studio okay yeah I'm listening to this artist named V right now um he's a hip-hop artist but he's he's great okay you might like his music okay I like everything don't just because you know I'm an older jzer old right yeah doesn't mean I don't like all the music okay go ahead and then probably all time um I have to say I gotta say MJ like Michael Jackson is just classic everybody loves Michael Jackson yeah he yeah we outside of MJ who else okay yeah sorry sorry uh yeah he's like a no-brainer for real of course uh I would have to say Kanye is my favorite like artist all the time for sure he's dope he's he's super talented he has his personal stuff he's got his drama but musically genius genius genius for real for real for sure all right so going from this what else are you working on acting wise are you do do you still audition outside of it or are you just focused on because if the season when you guys do it it's already wrapped now right so you've already done all the episodes everything is done already done what do you do uh I keep going I keep working no but are you auditioning for other things you look at movie projects as well yeah absolutely I have a movie coming out um October 11th excuse me yeah October 11th it's called bad genius um yeah and so that that that'll be cool October it's like a heist movie uh yeah it's uh it's me uh with uh a good friend of mine her name is Kina leang and Benedict Wong who you might have seen in like the Marvel movie so it's it's a heist movie it's going to be it's going to be good it's going to be great nice okay he's been staying busy's like don't sleep on me and I also uh I worked on um a voice over roll for this one was like a personal favorite of mine my favorite like childhood book was called der of Wy kid yes so we have a new one coming out so I I I was able to work on that too so that was that is awesome okay just's keep it moving I like this now when you're not doing your work how do you chill are you a gamer are you shopping are you yeah I love gaming I love gaming I'm I I don't call myself like a gamer gamer but like I play the same games um do you stream live on Twitch are you out there N I got to start doing that though that's that's a wave for sure not on might as well I mean look I'm trying to find a game that I can play yeah no I mean I'm like a 2K guy they just released NCAA NCAA uh the uh football team football game yeah so I'm like that in that so if anybody wants to get smacked up we could do that now who's your in real life who's your team uh for college for college oh I don't really have a college team like for real for real well what about professional oh Eagles oh yeah of course he's from Philly could have been Baltimore it could have been B not a Ravens fan or Redskins fan I mean excuse me a Washington command the commanders not a commanders fan that name is crazy that was a crazy switch from the resin to the Washington football team to the commanders commanders I mean nasty work nasty work you got to do what you got to do that's okay the Cowboys are still the same and they're still raining oh you're a Cowboys fan well I married into the cowboy Collective okay my dad's a Cowboys fan see he and my husband would get along my husband's my whole family my in-laws they they tail gay they this when I tell you it's hectic I'm sorry you're sorry we are about to be champions F that's how we looking Cowboy fans every year Cowboys fans every year we look good this year okay I can't lie y'all got Jaylen Herz on the Eagles he's doing his thing M absolutely whatever we'll see we we'll come back when when the season is going really thick that's when you we'll come back ex talk to me exactly all right and so talk to us about the dating aspect are you dating out there and are you in La based yeah I'm I'm based in La okay yeah yeah are you dating out there have you gotone on any of the apps what dating kind of like but not really like you know you're saying this to me if there's someone watching right now would they be offended because you're like I'm kind of no no one will be offend Mak sure because I a want you to get me text you said that RoR right yeah no no I'm not serious no not not in a serious relationship at all but uh yeah it's been cool you know it's been fun and how has the family adapted to you just blowing up over well not overnight but over these Seasons now playing from um with belir I think they're just proud you know what I mean they they wanted they want me to keep they trying to keep me focused you know what I mean like I talk to my dad all the time he's like what's next like what's you know what I mean so that's how they've always been you know my family always pushes me to like keep going and so I appreciate that you know I love it system never settle never you got to keep the multiple streams going we got to we got to keep going all right I'm trying to be on my what is it Zuckerberg my Ryan seest my Oprah Ryan CEST oh yeah I mean Ryan is killing he's the new host of what is it the Wheel of Fortune oh really yes he he says he host everything how does he host every show and then that's what I'm trying to be hi Ryan got you got you okay got you got you no but you could be doing all that stuff too and you're on your way so that is amazing all right so we'll be looking for you when does peacock air every but you can stream it um whenever you want right yeah you I mean um B air is on peacock airing whenever you want because it's already episodes is that how it goes you know what I'm not even sure to be honest I think every Friday every Friday well the first three episodes are out now and then every and then weekly every like Thursday here we go this is this is technology here we go all right so when can we watch Belair so the first three episodes out right now and then you can watch every episode after that every Thursday weekly love it all right we got to get the music and we'll be seeing you in that movie soon as well soon soon all right jaari thank you for stopping by thank you for having me