“Cosby Show” actor Jeffrey Owens said he is still struggling to make ends meet after he was forced to leave his job at a Trader Joe’s grocery store due to an “invasion of my privacy.”
Owens, who is best known for his role as Alvin Tibideaux on the six-time Emmy-winning series, claimed he is “in no better shape” than he is today after a client asked the actor behind the Had taken a picture of. grocery store register in 2018,
“Even today, as we speak, I’m still struggling to make a living,” Owens said. Atlanta’s V-103 radio station On 18 December. “I struggle every day to make ends meet. And people don’t notice it because they see me in films.
The rest of Owens’ reviews were “never particularly amazing” as he only starred in “maybe 20% of the shows” on the hit series.
“People have a misconception of what the average middle-class actor makes and their ability to make a living in the industry,” Owens said.
The Yale University graduate and son of former New York Congressman Major Owens worked a “regular” job and went unnoticed until he was photographed working at Trader Joe’s.
“At first, there was basically some negative talk about job shaming. “It’s like, ‘Where is he now?'” Owens told V-103. “But then, soon after, there was so much support and encouragement from around the world.”
Owens was concerned about his privacy being violated, so he quit before the new program became public.
“It was weird because someone was in the store taking pictures,” Owens recalled. And I was like, now that it’s falling apart I wouldn’t feel comfortable working in this store wondering who’s the one with the camera. This would be very strange. I am a very private person.
“It wasn’t like I left the job knowing that I would soon make a lot of money or anything. I felt that I would not be able to tolerate this kind of investigation and attack on my privacy.
When this news came out there was a flood of support for him.
Nicki Minaj sent him $25,000 but Owens donated the money to a charity because “it didn’t feel right to keep it” without working for it.
But he happily accepted work in dozens of projects, including starring alongside powerhouses like Tyler Perry in the show “The Haves and the Have Nots” and the 50-Cent-produced shows “Power” and “Power Book II: Ghost.”
Owens currently stars in the CBS sitcom “Poppa’s House”, starring Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr.
The actor admitted that after the spotlight subsided, he went back to Trader Joe’s while acting and asked for more hours because money was still tight – and is.
Bill Cosby, star of the titular sitcom, and the decline in his reputation following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct led to the series being removed from syndication and affected Owens’ bottom line, he said.
The three-time Golden Globe-winning “The Cosby Show” was removed from syndication on several networks in 2014 after Cosby was accused and ultimately convicted of sexual assault — which he denied.
The man formally known as “America’s Father” served three years of a 10-year prison sentence that went up to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The conviction was overturned in 2021.
“Yes, it affected me financially. At the time the show was taken off the air, it made a difference to our income,” Owens told People in 2018.
During her V-103 interview, she reiterated that her remains were “over” after the Bill Cosby scandal.
