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The late actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner reflected on his groundbreaking role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show in Issa Rae's new documentary, which marked one of his last on-screen appearances before his death.
Warner, who died at 54 in a drowning accident while vacationing in Costa Rica in July, appeared in Part 1 of the two-part HBO series "Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television," during which he recalled the audition that launched his career.
“When I auditioned for Cosby, I was 13,” Warner said. “I’d been watching Diff’rent Strokes and watching these kids on television be smart alecks… that’s what my acting had been influenced by.”
Warner said he felt confident during his audition and received laughs from nearly everyone, except Bill Cosby.
“I finished my audition, and everybody was smiling except Mr. Cosby,” Warner recalled. “And he looked at me and he said, ‘Would you really talk to your father like that?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘I don’t want to see that on this show.’”
Despite Cosby's now-controversial legacy, Warner credited him with maintaining the show's integrity against industry pressure.
“Mr. Cosby made certain that everyone was acutely aware that The Cosby Show was his brainchild,” he said. “There’s a network producer, writers, you know, studio coming in, trying to tell him how to do his show, and every step of the way, Mr. Cosby had to stop them and remind them that’s not the show that we’re doing.”
“That battle never stopped, until the show stopped,” Warner added.
Warner also acknowledged how The Cosby Show was both praised and critiqued for its portrayal of Black life.
“I was getting tens of thousands of letters from people who were saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you for the show. We are the Huxtables,’” he said.
However, “the show obviously got criticized for not being Black enough, not being a real depiction of the Black experience," the actor added.
Rae's documentary "Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television" is now streaming on HBO Max. Warner is also set to posthumously appear in Murder in a Small Town, a Fox crime drama premiering on October 7.
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