Famed model Beverly Johnson said she was auditioning for a minor role as a pregnant woman on “The Cosby Show” in the mid-1980s at his Manhattan townhouse when Bill Cosby allegedly drugged her. Johnson first made the accusations in an essay she penned for “Vanity Fair,” and then retold the story Friday morning in her first television interview.
Johnson, 56, said her agent found her the audition for “The Cosby Show” as she was getting out of a bad marriage and breaking into acting, and that she had met Cosby twice before the incident occurred.
“Looking back, that first invite from Cosby to his home seems like part of a perfectly laid out plan, a way to make me feel secure with him at all times. It worked like a charm. Cosby suggested I come back to his house a few days later to read for the part. I agreed, and one late afternoon the following week I returned,” Johnson wrote.
The two had a meal at his house, and when they went upstairs Cosby told her to practice “acting drunk”:
Cosby said he wanted to see how I handled various scenes, so he suggested that I pretend to be drunk. (When did a pregnant woman ever appear drunk on The Cosby Show? Probably never, but I went with it.)
As I readied myself to be the best drunk I could be, he offered me a cappuccino from the espresso machine. I told him I didn’t drink coffee that late in the afternoon because it made getting to sleep at night more difficult. He wouldn’t let it go. He insisted that his espresso machine was the best model on the market and promised I’d never tasted a cappuccino quite like this one.
Johnson said by the second sip she knew she had been drugged, “and drugged good.” (RELATED: Someone Wrote ‘Rapist’ All Over Bill Cosby’s Walk Of Fame Star)
As I felt my body go completely limp, my brain switched into automatic-survival mode. That meant making sure Cosby understood that I knew exactly what was happening at that very moment.
‘You are a motherfucker aren’t you?’
That’s the exact question I yelled at him as he stood there holding me, expecting me to bend to his will. I rapidly called him several more ‘motherfuckers.’ By the fifth, I could tell that I was really pissing him off. At one point he dropped his hands from my waist and just stood there looking at me like I’d lost my mind.
What happened next is somewhat cloudy for me because the drug was in fuller play by that time. I recall his seething anger at my tirade and then him grabbing me by my left arm hard and yanking all 110 pounds of me down a bunch of stairs as my high heels clicked and clacked on every step. I feared my neck was going to break with the force he was using to pull me down those stairs.
It was still late afternoon and the sun hadn’t completely gone down yet. When we reached the front door, he pulled me outside of the brownstone and then, with his hand still tightly clenched around my arm, stood in the middle of the street waving down taxis.
Cosby, 77, has never been charged with a crime connected to sexual assault allegations. In the past month, over 25 women have accused Cosby of sexual assault and/or drugging them. (RELATED: Histories Of Several Bill Cosby Accusers Are Questionable)
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