… ‘Oh, my God. You’re Jaleel White!’ And it’s funny ’cause I may not get that much respect from somebody who is 35 plus, but because she’s 8-years-old and she’s seen me in Big Fat Liar, she knows more about me. What they give me is that they keep me going.”
“I got to be honest, be genuine with you. When they asked me to play Stefan, I didn’t want to! I was a kid—16 years old—and as far as being in touch with “swag” or “cool,” I wasn’t. I cared about basketball and knew how to hit the beat of the joke. I asked the ecutive producer why they were doing this character and he was like, “Look, the audience will love it. They need to see a closer side of you.” To me, it was boring, because people didn’t understand the change, the metamorphosis, I went through as Steve [Urkel]. As Stefan, I basically played Jaleel and just cranked up the cheesy factor. But when I first walked through the door in that iconic white suit, to this day, I’ve never heard a scream like that. At that point, nobody knew the Babyface song [that played during the scene] and that the white suit would become as iconic as it is.”
“I want to work with the best. Because when you work with the best, you surprise yourself.”
