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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Olly Sholotan said Carlton's relationship with his mother, Vivian (Cassandra Freeman), is strained in the third season of Bel-Air, premiering Thursday on Peacock. In the season premiere, Carlton (Sholotan) returns from one month in a rehabilitation center after confessing in the Season 2 finale he was using cocaine. Sholotan, 26, said Vivian embodies the protectiveness and discipline he also sees in his mother.
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"You don't [expletive] with Black moms," Sholotan told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "Carlton's like, 'You don't look at me the same way. What's wrong? I'm your son.'"
When Carlton confessed, Vivian's instinct was to care for him. Now that she has had a month to process that Carlton was lying to his parents, she questions his assurances and, along with her husband Phil (Adrian Holmes), puts locks on their valuables.
"Viv doesn't trust herself because she didn't see any of these things in Carlton," Sholotan said. "So now she's trying to learn how to trust herself again and learn how to trust Carlton again."
Vivian's protective instincts still arise when Carlton introduces her to Amira (Alycia Pascual-Peña), a girl he met in rehab. Sholotan said Vivian is understandably skeptical about Carlton having a relationship so soon and with another person with an addiction.
"She has to reconcile letting her baby grow up, but also not let him make a potentially bad mistake," Sholotan said.
Carlton and Amira acknowledge that traditional 12-step programs advise not beginning a new relationship in the first year of recovery. Sholotan said Bel-Air shows the pros and cons of their pairing.
"You have two broken people trying to find wholeness in each other," Sholotan said. "In a lot of ways, it works. In a lot of ways, it doesn't."
Just as Bel-Air represents the nature of Black moms, Sholotan said the show portrayed a rarer form of fatherly love. In the Season 2 finale, it was important to Sholotan that Phil and Carlton embrace after having a volatile verbal blowout.
"In that final scene, you get to see two men hold each other and cry," Sholotan said. "That's something that, growing up, I never got to see."
Bel-Air began as a dramatic reimagining of the Will Smith sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will (Smith) moved in with his wealthy aunt, uncle and cousins in California.
Smith is an executive producer, having seen the short film Morgan Cooper produced and developing it into a series.
Carlton's addiction is based on an episode of the original show in which Alfonso Ribeiro's character took drugs. Sholotan said that by Season 3, fans have fully accepted the dramatic take on Bel-Air.
"I don't get the question of 'Will you do the Carlton dance?' as often anymore," Sholotan said, referring to Ribeiro's famous dance which became known as "The Carlton" on the '90s sitcom.
Sholotan said he has only met Riberio briefly, on the red carpet for Smith's Bad Boys: Ride or Die, but has met other Fresh Prince cast members when they guest-starred on Bel-Air, such as Tatyana Ali and Joseph Marcel.
Bel-Air casts new actors as the Banks family and Will (Jabari Banks). Sholotan considers Carlton his "breakout role."
After graduating from Kinder High School for the Performing of Visual Arts in 2015, an alma mater he proudly shares with Beyonce, Sholotan attended UCLA for musical theater.
Upon graduating in 2019, Sholotan was cut from an episode of All American and appeared in the film Run Hide Fight. Between Seasons 2 and 3 of Bel-Air, he played Ibrahim Ferrer in an off-Broadway production of The Buena Vista Social Club.
Sholotan also records music and writes screenplays he is in the process of pitching.
"I think I was put on this Earth to create art," Sholotan said. "It's physically impossible for me to not be creating something."
Whether he creates music, acts or develops other projects, Sholotan said he hopes he can make something "that's going to change the world." He credits Bel-Air with making him visible to other collaborators in the arts.
"The next big thing hasn't been made yet," Sholotan said. "So, I want to be the one to find it and make it."
