87didn’t know is that some of his most
important work was being done be-
hind the scenes. He revolutionized the
stunt industry for Black performers by
insisting his stunts be done by a Black
man and not by a white man who was
painted black. (Yes, that was a thing.)
Cosby made sure to hire Black people
behind the scenes before we all under-
stood how important that is.
I didn’t know all that when I was a
kid. So much of the Bill Cosby story
for me is about what I didn’t know
then, and what I do know now. I also
didn’t know that if you go all the way
back to the early years of his career,
there are women who have accused
him of sexual assault or rape. These
allegations are consistent through-
out his career. When you look into the
stories of the more than 60 women
who have come forward, you see all
kinds of women, of different races and
backgrounds. Some knew him for one
night, and some knew him for years.
Some worked for him. Some looked
at him as a mentor. Some only sort of
knew who he was when they met him.
The only common thread they have is
their stories of Bill Cosby assaulting
or raping them. Admittedly, I didn’t
look deeply into their stories untilI worked on this project. My “artist
formerly known as Bill Cosby” thing
feels especially feckless and mealy-
mouthed now.When Bill CosBy was sentenced to
prison, I thought, “Well, the story is
over now. He’s 81, maybe now is the
time to talk about all this.” I started
working on the docuseries in 2019. I
reached out to the comedians I knew
had a stake in the conversation. That
list is pretty much every comedian I
knew, and maybe even every come-
dian, period. I quickly found out that
I was among the few who wanted to
have the Bill Cosby conversation. Very
few of the people who worked with
him wanted to talk, either. And of
course since this is about Bill Cosby,
many of these people who didn’t want
to talk are Black. This is a third-rail
conversation for Black folks. Whether
you believe the women, whether you
think Cosby is (or ever was) a hero,
there are too many land mines. This is
combined with the fact that no mat-
ter what you think
about Cosby, Black
folks in the U.S. are
always living under
a deficit of role mod-
els and representa-
tion. Consider all
that alongside the
fact that America has
a well- earned reputa-
tion for criminalizing
and killing innocent
Black men. There is
no perceived gain
in taking a Black
man down.
I wondered if I
was making a mis-
take taking this on. (I
have wondered that
many, many times,
even as I type this.)
Then COVID-19 hit, making produc-
tion impossible. And then on our last
day of filming, in June 2021, the crew
and I were in Philadelphia, waiting for
our last interviewee to arrive, when
I got a text message from a friend:
“Your film just got way more interest-
ing.” Bill Cosby was being released
from prison, less than an hour’s drivefrom where we were. I’m sure that ev-
erybody who had said no to me before
this moment breathed a sigh of relief.
The third-rail conversation had just
gotten another shot of electricity.
This docuseries feels like it could
be the end of my career. Many times
while making it I hoped it would just
go away. Get canceled or permanently
shelved. It had certainly happened
to other Bill Cosby documentaries.
But then every time I would have
that thought, I would think about the
women who have alleged harrowing
encounters with Cosby and their
bravery when they talked to me for
this project. These are women who
have gone through the wringer since
they came forward. Lili Bernard,
who claims Cosby drugged and raped
her during the time she appeared on
The Cosby Show, says there has been
constant “blaming and shaming.”
Most of these women have learned
to distrust the media as a whole.
But they trusted me with their stories.
I couldn’t leave them on the shelf,
even if my career is
in the balance.
We have to be able
to at least have
the conversation.
So much more is
at stake.
This is bigger than
Bill Cosby. Amer-
ica has a reputation
for not listening to
women who have
been sexually as-
saulted. America has
a history of allow-
ing powerful men to
take women as the
spoils of their power.
America has done an
awful job of dealing
with racism and rape.
I sincerely hope that
we can do a better job of dealing with
both those issues in the Bill Cosby
conversation. I believe there is one
more thing to learn from him, whether
he wants us to or not.Bell is an Emmy-winning producer,
stand-up comedian and host of CNN’s
THIS SPREAD: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY: SHOWTIME; BELL: AUNDRE LARROW United Shades of America
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Bell found that many comedians
were unwilling to discuss Cosby