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Bill Cosby has called W. Kamau Bell, director of the damning documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby, a \u201cPR hack.\u201d But Bell\u2019s work on the Showtime series was validated by the Television Academy today, earning four Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.<\/p>\n
Spanning four episodes, We Need to Talk About Cosby balances two discordant themes: the comedian\u2019s cultural impact as an African American entertainer, and the allegations from dozens of women that Cosby sexually assaulted them, accusations that stretch over a period of decades.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the nominations, Bell told Deadline, \u201cAll those survivors who trusted us by showing up to tell their stories, that\u2019s the biggest acknowledgement here. We really worked hard to make sure they didn\u2019t sound like we were \u2018soundbiting\u2019 them. We wanted them to tell bigger, longer versions of their stories and see them as humans outside of their time with Bill Cosby. And this is sort of a recognition of, we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series was shot during Covid, which meant doing interviews mostly over Zoom. Bell, the Emmy-winning host of United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, took a sensitive approach to speaking with his subjects, to avoid as much as possible the risk of retraumatizing them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tribute to the learning I\u2019ve done on United Shades of America\u2013the best place to start any interview is, How are you doing? What\u2019s going on with you today?\u201d he noted. \u201cAnd then with these interviews it was like, Tell me about your life, just generally, like where were you born? What do you do for a living? Because it\u2019s about getting to know that person through the interview so that by the time you get to the stuff that is difficult, you have a relationship with that person. And also they\u2019re more naturally telling it in a different way because they didn\u2019t sit down and have to start on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series is nominated for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program, and Bell is nominated individually for directing and as Outstanding Narrator. The directing category puts him up against, among others, Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, directors of George Carlin\u2019s American Dream, and Amy Poehler, director of Lucy and Desi. Like Poehler and Apatow, Bell\u2019s background is in comedy, and he first gained recognition as a standup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to sound ridiculous, it is truly an honor to be nominated amongst that group of heavy-hitting directors. Like, if you had said 10 years ago to me that you and Judd Apatow are going to be up against each other in the directing category, I would have been like, \u2018What happened to his career?\u201d Bell joked. \u201cI\u2019m super excited for the editors who got nominated and I\u2019m super excited for the producers all being nominated. For me, just the fact that my name is going to be said among that group [of directors] feels like that is truly a victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Outstanding Narrator category Bell is classed with some extraordinary fellow contenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m up against Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sir David Attenborough and Barack Obama. I mean, come on. How am I going to be like, \u2018I hope I win!\u2019\u201d he laughed. \u201cI\u2019m just going to be glad to have a seat and to hear my name announced among those people.\u201d<\/p>\n
With today\u2019s nominations, Bell brings his career Emmy nomination total to 10, with three victories. Helping to keep him grounded amid all that success are his parenting responsibilities to two young children. He was on dad duty this morning before the Emmy nominations were announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing what I do most mornings. I was making my kids lunch. I was fighting with my four-year-old to get her shoes on her feet so she can go to pre-school,\u201d he said. \u201cLiving that parent life. Trying to figure out how many carrots I could put in the lunchbox and then, right as they all left, the [Emmy] news started to come through.\u201d<\/p>\n
View this article at Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" W. Kamau Bell On His Emmy Noms For Powerful Doc Series \u2018We Need To Talk About Cosby,\u2019 And Facing Barack Obama For Outstanding Narrator: Bill Cosby has called W. Kamau Bell, director of the damning documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby, a \u201cPR hack.\u201d But Bell\u2019s work on the Showtime series was validated
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