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Bill Cosby has dismissed W. Kamau Bell, director of the Showtime documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby, as a \u201cPR hack.\u201d But The Cosby Show star and accused serial rapist appears to be in a small minority. No less an institution than the New York Times has declared Bell\u2019s series \u201ca model of how to engage honestly with disgraced artists and their art.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his four-part Emmy-contending series, Bell examines Cosby\u2019s entertainment industry accomplishments and powerful impact on American culture, while confronting head on allegations from dozens of women that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them. Cosby\u2019s alleged string of sexual assaults continued over a period of decades, beginning in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know until I started studying this that it went back to so early in his career to before he was really even a super famous comedian, before he was really very known,\u201d Bell said as he appeared on a Deadline Virtual House panel to discuss his series. \u201cI think that\u2019s one of the things that is shocking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell interviewed numerous Cosby accusers, including Lili Bernard, an African American actress who guest-starred on an episode of The Cosby Show in the early 1990s. Appearing on the panel with Bell, Bernard spoke of the vicious backlash she has faced for coming forward with her allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Black survivor of Bill Cosby, speaking out comes with an extra burden, because we as Black women are enculturated to protect the Black male image,\u201d Bernard said. \u201cSociety is invested in uplifting the Black male image that is denigrated in the media. And so it is against the status quo for the Black community in general to speak out against Black male perpetrators. It saddens me to say that the demographic of people who have attacked me and blamed and shamed me the most are Black men\u2026 To have someone as brave and courageous and compassionate and respected as Kamau, to give credence to our voices in such a very objective way, is just life changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell has earned three Emmys for his work on the CNN nonfiction series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell. In We Need to Talk About Cosby, he acknowledges a degree of anguish about taking on an icon like Cosby, because he grew up a fan of the comedian\u2019s work, including his children\u2019s cartoon show Fat Albert. But he says it was the testimony of Cosby accusers that motivated him to persevere.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all asked to tell their stories quite often,\u201d Bell noted. \u201cTheir stories have been reduced to soundbites. And because many of them said they knew my work, they trusted me to sort of get a different take on this that would honor them. And so for me, that was the thing that kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cosby has been out of prison for about a year, freed after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out his 2018 conviction for aggravated indecent assault, ruling Cosby\u2019s rights under the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution had been violated. The comedian still faces civil actions from Bernard and other accusers; he has consistently denied their allegations.<\/p>\n
The series runs a total of 237 minutes. Producer Katie A. King said even at that length, it wasn\u2019t easy to unspool the narrative in all its nuance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge at the end was like, how do we fit it all in? Because there was just so much story to tell, so many decades of story to tell, so much that\u2019s happened,\u201d King said. \u201cWe were shooting when he \u2013 surprise \u2014 gets out of prison and we\u2019re like, Oh God. Like, now we have even more story to tell. And it felt even more urgent and scary for a lot of us that he\u2019s now free.\u201d<\/p>\n
King added, \u201cWe had a big team on this too, and everyone kind of added in their perspectives and insight. We are all proud of how it ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the conversation in the video above.<\/p>\n
View this article at Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018We Need To Talk About Cosby\u2019 Director W. Kamau Bell On What Shocked Him Most About Bill Cosby Story \u2013 Deadline Virtual House: Bill Cosby has dismissed W. Kamau Bell, director of the Showtime documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby, as a \u201cPR hack.\u201d But The Cosby Show star and accused serial rapist
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