‘It was bigger than Cosby’: W Kamau Bell on reckoning with an icon’s fall

W Kamau Bell: ‘When they built Hollywood back in the early days, they didn’t start with the human resources department. It’s a dream factory.’ Photograph: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

When word reached W Kamau Bell that Bill Cosby was home from prison, the United Shades of America host could have torn at his trademark salt-and-pepper afro.

Bell was in Philadelphia, Cosby’s home town, wrapping up interviews for a documentary project on the legendary comedian when Pennsylvania’s highest court tossed out the 84-year-old’s 2018 aggravated indecent assault conviction. The surprise ruling, which came just two years into a decade-long sentence, didn’t just have Bell reconsidering the premise of his film; it left him wondering whether he even had a film at all. “It felt like we could have this conversation because the arc of Bill Cosby’s life is concluded,” Bell said to the Guardian. “So when he got out, it’s like if the premise is ‘now that Bill Cosby’s in prison, we can have this conversation,’ what does it mean now that he’s out of prison? Can we still have the conversation?”