Most of the world knows the incriminating rape scandal has basically destroyed Bill Cosby’s career, but he’s not the only Cosby star who has been grossly affected by the case. Over the past week, Geoffrey Owens has been a big topic of discussion due to the viral job shaming photo that captured him bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s in Clifton, NJ. Now, he’s sharing the backstory about the job.
During a recent interview, Owens revealed the interesting reason why he ended up working at Trader Joe’s in the first place and surprisingly, it has a lot to do with Bill Cosby.
Cosby Scandal and Income Deficits:
When Geoffrey sat down for an interview with People magazine, he revealed his income had been significantly affected following Bill Cosby’s scandal. For years, Cosby has been faced with all kinds of allegations, but when the case took a turn in the victim’s favor, networks started canceling The Cosby Show left and right.
When Bill Cosby was convicted for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, all of the famed show’s episodes were snatched from television networks and immediately replaced with other programs. As a result of that, “The Cosby Show” cast felt the impacts, because the residual checks were no longer coming in.
For Geoffrey, this created an income deficit that had to be fixed. When asked about “The Cosby Show,” Geoffrey admitted he got the job at Trader Joe’s to replace that income.
“Yes, it impacted me financially. At the time that the show was pulled, that did make a difference in our income,” he revealed. “That was one of the elements that led to my getting to the place where I said to myself, ‘I have to do something’ and I was thinking, ‘What can I do?’ and the answer ended up being Trader Joe’s, which is actually a wonderful situation for me in many ways. ”
He added, “But I got to the point, I just had to do something to support myself and my family.”
He went on to admit just how humiliating the reports were when Fox News published the job shaming photo. Not only was he humiliated by the nature of the reports, but also how he was criticized for his physical appearance.
“I felt really humiliated,” Geoffrey said of the photo. “From the time that I heard that the article might be done to the time it came out, I tried to envision the worse case scenario just to prepare myself and then it was just a little bit worse. If that was possible. They went out of their way to find the very worst picture of me, in the worst shirt and the worst posture. The words they used to describe me were so demeaning. It hurt.”
But the disheartening joke quickly evolved into something totally different that ultimately turned out in Geoffrey’s favor.
Doing This His Way:
What seemed like just a job to make ends meet has now become a gateway to several opportunities. From being offered guaranteed acting roles, to being blessed with hard cash, Geoffrey has a lot of offers to choose from. Although the offers would likely be tempting to most people, Geoffrey still insists on doing things his way where his career is concerned.
“I’m going to keep pursuing it. I’m going to persevere. And even if that means, that eventually when all this hoopla dies down, I might need to take another job outside of the business. I’m still willing to do that,” he said.
Best of luck to Geoffrey Owens.
