Colman Domingo and The Fresh Prince go way back. Sort of.
The actor recently dropped by Benny Blanco, Lil Dicky and Kristin Batalucco‘s Friends Keep Secrets YouTube show, and while he and Dicky bonded over being from the Philadelphia area, Domingo revealed that he and Will Smith went to high school together.
“I went to high school with Will,” he said after referencing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air‘s theme song. “He was in the class before me, we had gym class and science class together.”
However, they weren’t really that close back in those days as Smith was beginning his rap career as one-half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. “We were never friends,” Domingo continued. “He was the cool kid and I was like ‘The Nerd.’ I was trying not to get beat up the whole time.”
He added that the future multi-platinum rapper and Oscar winner “really was the most popular kid in high school.“
“He was a local rapper and he and Jazzy Jeff, they would do shows at The Wynne Ballroom, and all the cool kids went. I didn’t go because I wasn’t a cool kid. I heard about it, but I was too busy doing schoolwork.”
The weird thing, though, is the two actors haven’t run into each other in Hollywood yet. The last time they saw each other was when Colman waited on him at a restaurant back home after Smith had become a huge star. “The last interaction I had with him, I was working at El Torito restaurant in Philadelphia as a waiter,” he recalled. “This is after he became very successful, moved to L.A., came back, and he had a big table with a bunch of friends and stuff like that.”
Domingo said as he was taking the table’s order, Will eventually recognized him and the two “hugged and that was it.“
“The weirdest thing is throughout our careers now, I’ve never run into him. I’m sure we’ll see each other at some point. And there’ll be warmth and a shared history from Philadelphia,” he concluded.
You can watch the full episode below.
