Coco Jones stopped by Audacy’s Big Tigger Morning Show on V-103 in Atlanta to discuss her role as Hilary Banks on Peacock's brand new re-imagined dramatic spin on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, her Disney channel childhood stardom, and upcoming music plans since signing to Def Jam.
LISTEN NOW: Coco Jones on Bel-Air, her Disney channel days, new music and more.
Describing her involvement with Bel-Air as a “whirlwind,” Jones shared that since taking on the roll of Hilary Banks on the Peakcock streaming show “everything has changed so quickly." Adding, “everyone’s reactions to the show feels so good, to know that like the culture approves, cause that’s hard to get y’know.”
One of the main thing changes that Coco welcomes, is that now random strangers run up calling her Hilary, instead of Roxie (from her Disney days, which we’ll get to in a bit). But speaking of Hilary, Coco actually had the chance to chat with Karyn Parsons, the actress who originally played Hilary on The Fresh Prince, who said “her version of Hilary is nothing like mine,” Jones shared.
Parsons’ who is “really cool and really chill,” came up with her version of Hilary “out of thin air” and from people she knew. But as Jones noted, Karyn “liked that my version of Hilary is like very similar to me, she really approved.”
After delving into her Bel-Air character for a bit, speaking on possible relationships and story lines, and just how different each character is compared to the original, Coco discussed her upcoming music.
“My music now, I feel like, it’s the product of everything that I’ve been through and all the why’s," Coco explained. “So this is like the answer to the why’s that I had as I was coming out of that young, child stardom, into a young adult, and now I feel like I’m grown.”
Now at 24 years old Coco understands “who I am, and what I am trying to say, and why all those things didn’t happen back in the day when I wanted them to — cause I wasn’t ready.”
A lot of what Coco referred to had directly to do with her days on Disney, which brought up the next question, of whether she believed the youth network “failed” her based on the color of her skin.
Having a hard time with the word “failed,” knowing and feeling that she herself never did, Jones shared that “everything that happened,” which at times “wasn’t fair,” and “lack of opportunities specifically catered to me and my shade,” did lead to “instrumental” lessons “in making me who I am.”
After admittedly being “hurt then,” Jones now has the perspective to realize, at that time she wasn’t in the right place to see the “bigger picture.” Saying, “If I could go back I’d be like ‘this is gonna hurt a little bit, but we’ll be okay.’”
When it comes to skin tone, beauty standards and representation, Coco admitted that “colorism is a real thing, our people are very hard on on us.” And though those notions have changed with time, the wonderful thing about Bel-Air is that it is contributing by “giving Black excellence.”
“There’s plenty of shades on there and the show is doing well so even that can change someone’s perception of what is beautiful, what is strong, what do those things look like, and what can they be,” Jones continued.
Sharing her experience of working with Will Smith on the adaption of the show that sky-rocketed him to fame, Jones said, “Will and his production team, they have been so hands on, so supportive… What I love about Bel-Air, I’ve never experienced it before where people just don’t put a limit on me. I’ve always had to just like tone it down, or just fit in whatever that little box is…”
But what differs for this, is that “Will and his production team.. they just take the barriers off… we get to like have a voice… it’s a collaboration, that’s why feel like it’s so authentic.”
After introducing and listening to her brand new song, “Caliber,” Coco discussed what it is about her music that will make her stand out, in what Tigger referred to as “an over-saturated market.”
Listen to the entire interview with Cici above, and then also obviously check out her new single “Caliber” below.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram