It goes without saying that RuPaul is truly one of the biggest and most beloved celebrities around. And she could probably have a cameo on any TV show she wanted.
But, of course, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, Ru actually once got rejected from having a cameo on one of the biggest TV shows of the ’90s: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
According to David Steven Simon, one of the show’s co-executive producers from 1992–96, it was actually Will Smith himself who turned down the idea. David spoke to journalist Thea Glassman’s for her book Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television, People reports.
At the time, Ru was just crossing over into the mainstream with her 1993 hit song “Supermodel (You Better Work),” and David brought up the idea of having her cameo while pitching ideas for upcoming episodes.
David went on to say that Will wasn’t known for rejecting ideas, but he said no to that one, adding, “I remember him saying that would be a really bad idea.”
According to David, he recalls that Will was against having a drag queen on the show. Eventually, he told Will, “OK, OK. We don’t need to do it,” and dropped the idea of having Ru on.
David speculated that the reason Will was against it was because it could hurt his image, saying, “The reason he would say no is because of his image. Period. The end.”
While Ru might have missed her chance to appear on Fresh Prince, she did have a full-circle moment when she featured Will’s daughter Willow Smith‘s “Whip My Hair” during the lip sync between Alyssa Edward and Roxxxy Andrews on Season 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The lip sync has, of course, become one of the most iconic moments in series herstory.
View this video on YouTube
World of Wonder/ Valentine / Via youtube.com
And honestly, it isn’t too late for Ru to have Will on her multiple Emmy-winning show as a judge! I mean, that would be a fun episode, and Ru could even bring up the cameo snub during Untucked!
You can read the entire article over at People.