Malcolm-Jamal Warner grew up with Bill Cosby, both on and off-screen.
When multiple women publicly accused Cosby of drugging and/or sexual assault, Warner – who played the comedian’s son on “The Cosby Show” for eight years – didn’t directly address the allegations.
The actor stopped by Access Hollywood Live on Tuesday, where Billy Bush and Kit Hoover asked him if his feelings regarding Cosby have changed now that dozens of additional allegations have been leveled against the 78-year-old.
“No. I have not changed my feelings,” Warner said. “The thing that resonates with me when I look at the situation is it’s a bad situation for everyone involved – bad for him and for the women and for the family of the women and Mr. Cosby’s family.”
Adding, “Every way you look at it, it’s not a good situation.”
When asked if the allegations against Cosby — who has never been charged with any crime, and whose attorneys have denied some of the allegations and declined to comment on others — have caused Warner to “doubt the man you thought you knew,” he answered, “Not at all.”
“What’s going on now has not changed my feelings about him and not changed the wonderful person he has been to me. There so many and because of these allegations, all we are doing is offering an opinion. All I am doing is adding my opinion to this opinion,” he said, adding that he has spoken to Cosby many times since the scandal broke but declined to share details of their “private conversation.”
Warner said that while his experience with Cosby has been positive, personalities and personas are multi-faceted.
“I have known this man for half of my life, and as good as he has been to me, I have been able to see the totality of who he is,” he said.
Warner – who earned a Grammy this year for Best Traditional R&B performance – is returning to the small screen in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” playing the disgraced football star’s close friend, Al “AC” Cowlings.
The actor vividly remembers watching the Simpson trial as it happened.
“I was home. I just remember watching the whole case. It feels like it was a lifetime ago and when you see the footage, you go, man, I remember all of that,” he said.
To embody Cowlings’ character, Warner said he focused on Cowlings’ dedication to O.J.
“He was O.J.’s best friend. He the cat that looked out for O.J. It really seems like he was the cat that kept O.J. out of trouble,” he said. “I honestly believe if AC and O.J. had still been friends after this stuff, O.J. would not be where not be where he is now. Al was really the one that kept him out of that trouble.”
“American Crime Story” began filming in May and will premiere in February 2016. Warner’s EP, “Selfless,” is available on iTunes.
— Erin O’Sullivan
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