‘Cosby Show’ star Geoffrey Owens quits grocery store job, gets acting offer from Tyler Perry
In a new interview with Good Morning America, former Cosby Show star Geoffrey Owens says he went from being devastated to elated after he was job shamed over the weekend for working at grocery chain Trader Joe’s.
Someone snapped pics of the actor as he was on duty at the New Jersey store. The pictures went viral and the headlines were biting. Many outlets had mocking headlines that presented Owens working at the store as a fall from grace.
In his interview with Robin Roberts, Owens said that the pictures and headlines did sting, but that the shaming period didn’t last long because of the tremendous round of support he was shown as soon as the pictures went viral.
“I really want to thank everybody out there, family, friends, Hollywood, the general public for the amazing support and positivity,” said Owens. “I was devastated, but the period of devastation was so short because my wife and I started reading these responses from literally all over the world. So fortunately, the shame part didn’t last very long.”
Owens has taught acting classes at Yale and has appeared on several television shows over the years such as The Affair and Lucifer, but he said no job has lasted more than 10 weeks. The Trader Joe’s gig gave him the flexibility to audition while earning a steady check. Owens has now quit his grocery store job that he had been at for 15 months because all of the new-found attention made it impossible to remain working there.
But, it’s likely that Owens will see a slew of new job offers with all of the eyes on him at the moment and he has a very gracious response to that. “This might sound weird, I wouldn’t feel comfortable getting acting jobs from this event. I wouldn’t mind getting auditions. But I actually wouldn’t feel comfortable with someone giving me a job because this happened. I want to get a job because I’m the right person for that job.” he said.
A true blessing in disguise. He was happy, minding his business, making his money, and supporting his family. Only for some invasive person to publicly shame by taking a photo and sending it to media outlets, causing him to quit….Then the blessings started rolling out.
