11/28/2023 0 Comments Carlton bel air olly sholotan![]() I'm going to be real with you because it is something that we as a creative team did on purpose. OS: Well, I mean, it's hard not to take it as a compliment. How did you feel when you were receiving a lot of that flack for a character that is nothing like you? He was receiving a lot of hate, and a lot of fans don't know how to separate the character from the person. The first few episodes, well, and the majority of season one, I was not feeling Carlton. We're very much trying to lead by example in showing that there are ways you can talk about mental health as a Black community, as Black men, and do it in a healthy way that's productive. ![]() We can be better,” and I think Bel-Air is one of the first shows in that. What I think is beautiful about my generation and in the coming generation right after me is we're really looking at that in the face and saying, "We don't have to be that way. That's something that we've all experienced to a certain extent. Especially as Black men, there is a pressure to suck it up, be a man, and be better. Find ways to cope with the stresses of life that are healthy. OS: I think as a community in general, I don't think we do enough to center self-care in a way that isn't just 'go get mani-pedis,' but also just take care of your mental health, take care of your wellbeing. ![]() What's the importance of having conversations about mental health when it comes to Black men? xoN: One thing that I love about 'Bel-Air' is that it normalizes conversations in the first season about anxiety and coping mechanisms, especially as it pertains to Carlton's storyline. I'm a much different Olly now than when I started, and I feel like I've grown in so many ways that I'm really proud of. A friend pointed out the other day that I shot 20 episodes of television, which when you put it like that, it's like along the way, I'm going to learn things. We're about to wrap on the second season. In that way, it's different because there's a feeling of mastery that comes with just doing it two years now. Every single day, when I wake up before I go to work, before I go to set, there's that pinch me, I hope I'm not dreaming kind of feeling that doesn't go away. There's the realization that your life is about to change in a way that is inconceivable and that is still a feeling that I experience every single day. I feel the same and different in a lot of ways, and from the moment I was cast, I think that there's an excitement that doesn't ever go away. Olly Sholotan: It's funny because I don't think I've ever changed how I felt. xoNecole: How did you feel when you were first cast in 'Bel-Air' in comparison to you now amping up to wrap up production for the second season? I feel like as an artist, I'm in this space right now where I'm kind of becoming the artist I've always dreamed of being." I was literally just talking to Morgan Cooper ( Bel-Air creator/EP) about this earlier today. Because we're about a week and a half or two weeks away from wrapping on Bel-Air, there's kind of this energy of 'Holy shit, we did it,' but we did it again- twice. “Honestly, my mental health is doing great. He continued to tell me about the current state of his mental health before we dove into our candid conversation. “I'm actually in a fitting right now, so if I have to take five seconds to put a shirt on, my apologies again,” Sholotan said during our phone interview for xoNecole. Fast forward just a few short months later, I dialed into the conference line excited to speak with Olly once again. A good actor evokes emotion, but it takes a phenomenal thespian to take the audience on a journey filled with mental and psychological turmoil for the first time since Gossip Girl’s Chuck Bass.ĭuring our meeting, he shook my hand and greeted me with a genuine smile that was hard to forget. And, not too much to my surprise, he was the exact opposite of the character he plays in the series, Carlton Banks. I was already a fan of Bel-Air, so I knew exactly who he was when my friend introduced us. The first time I met Olly Sholotan was at a Tier NYC fashion show during New York Fashion Week in Brooklyn.
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