W. Kamau Bell has never been one to shy away from discussing the tough subjects. In fact, he’s only used his entertaining approach and thought-provoking humor over the years to further the conversation on a myriad of topics on a number of different platforms, and his latest project is no exception. It could also very well be his toughest conversation yet.
With a new four-part documentary series, We Need To Talk About Cosby, which premiered on Showtime on Sunday (January 30), Bell tackles the uncomfortable questions and truths surrounding the legacy and eventual infamy of Bill Cosby both in his own way, as well as through the perspectives of fellow artists and activists. While the final product, as you’ll see, is rich with unique, complicated and powerful viewpoints that effectively delve into all corners of the once-revered cultural icon’s career and life, the road to get there was met with a lot of pushback. But at the end of it all, Bell is proud of what the project represents.
“I stand by this project, because there’s a lot of good work in it,” Bell tells Vanyaland. “I know it’s not the easiest subject to talk about, and some people don’t feel like we need to talk about Cosby, and I know that because they told me that on Instagram and Twitter. I know there are some people who will hate it and refuse to watch it, but I hope that if you do watch it, with whatever you approach it with, that you appreciate the fact that there is a lot of good work in this, and that it isn’t done frivolously, even though it’s done by a stand-up comedian.”
Although the fruits of his labor throughout his career, and his determination to uncover truth and understanding in many facets, has brought Bell to the stature of a beacon of insightful social and political commentary, the inspiration for this project was sparked long before he ever thought he’d be in the position to make it a reality.
After reading about how Cosby’s interview had been removed from Nonie Robinson’s forthcoming documentary Breaking Bones, Breaking Barriers following the revelations that would ultimately lead to Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction, Bell knew there was a conversation to be had.
Now, for a Black comedian who grew up in the ‘70s and absorbed decades of Cosby’s on-screen and voiceover work, as well as his offscreen “tutelage” to do the right thing, it was a tough conversation to start as the revelations initially hit hard for Bell. That was until the amount of accusations leveled against Cosby were “somewhere between zero and 60,” adding more perspective to the “separating art from the artist” debate.
“If you told me that there was this great, new comedian named Bill Cosby who has this great, clean act that’s family-friendly and he’s an inspirational Black man, and then asked me to go see him perform live before telling me he raped over 60 women, I wouldn’t go. Those things don’t square for me,” says Bell. “The fact is, I didn’t have all that information before I took in all the Bill Cosby content I took in as a kid and as an adult, but now that I know these things, I can’t treat it separately. But I also can’t act like I haven’t been affected in a positive way by Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids, Bill Cosby: Himself, Picture Pages, or The Cosby Show. I can’t act like that stuff isn’t in my cultural and racial DNA, or that the example of the Bill Cosby that I thought I knew didn’t lead me to the kind of career I have. All of that got me to the point of realizing that Bill Cosby was kind of the one who taught me that I should make this documentary.”
While the amount of rejected invitations to be a part of the documentary outweighed the accepted ones, both in terms of volume and level of celebrity, Bell is quick to acknowledge just how deep and meaningful the conversations with the “yes” crowd were. Along the way, as he reached out to more people, and those invites were met with an undesired answer, Bell wondered if he had made a mistake in overestimating the interest in or comfort level of the conversation. But as he would find out, the people who sat down with him offered up plenty of validation through their words and eagerness to share their experiences and perspectives.
“It became clear that the ‘no’s’ were not universal, but from a certain type of famous or connection to Bill Cosby, they were nearly universal, so we focused on who said yes, and I’m very excited about who said yes,” says Bell. “I hadn’t connected with a lot of these people before, but then you sit down with people like Renee Graham from The Boston Globe who is a flamethrower of truth, or Doug E. Doug who is like an open heart with his level of comfort in exposing himself to all of this and telling his truth the way he feels it and not backing off of it, you realize that these conversations really are amazing.”
Over the course of his career, Bell has had opportunities come up that he would’ve never expected, and this project is no exception. As a Black American, and as someone who didn’t go to film school or work on documentaries at PBS, he knows what it means to be trusted with an opportunity like this, and he’s hoping, at the very least, he can help keep the conversation going long after the cameras stop rolling.
“Next, you can turn to the people in your community and discuss how to create a safer environment for women and girls, specifically in terms of what the film covers,” says Bell. “Forget a criminal justice system, but how do we create a justice system that, if a person is sexually assaulted, they can go somewhere and trust that they can get justice and healing, and not be blamed or shamed? It’s also about a revolution of how we can figure out teaching sex education to men, or really everyone as children so we can all identify when something bad happens, and feel like we have access to our voices to help or report.”