Footage has emerged showing Alfonso Ribiero admitting that he didn’t create the iconic Carlton Dance – only days after he announce he was suing Fortnite for copying his moves.
The actor, who portrayed Carlton Banks on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, announced plans to sue both Fortnite and the creators of NBA 2K earlier this week.
He filed the lawsuit against Epic Games after it was revealed that players could purchase an ’emote’ or a dance called ‘Fresh’, which characters can perform as a celebration within the game. You can watch the two dances alongside in the video below.
But despite the lawsuit, a video from 2012 has showed Ribiero admitting that the dance took heavy inspiration from the likes of Courtney Cox and Eddie Murphy.
“It’s a combo of all of that and little bit of me mixed in,” he explains to TMZ. “Courtney Cox did the ‘Dancing In The Dark’ video with Bruce Springsteen. When he brought Courtney Cox up on stage, she did that dance and then it was Eddie Murphy’s white man dance in the Delirious video.”
However, his comments have since been defended by attorney David Hecht, who explained: “On numerous occasions, Mr. Ribeiro has commented on his inspiration for the dance. In the clip, Mr. Ribeiro used the word “stole” in jest. He did not use the word ‘stole’ in the legal sense.
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“In his words, it was Ribeiro’s (a professional dancer’s) interpretation of what a white person looks like when they dance. That describes a copyrightable choreographic work.”
Fortnite has come under fire in recent months for the apparent appropriation of various dances as purchasable player emotes. Examples include BlocBoy JB’s ‘shoot’ dance and the moves from Snoop Dogg’s ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’.