W. Kamau Bell is talking about Bill Cosby — and it’s not easy

Early on, W. Kamau Bell girded for the response, the vitriolic backlash over his thought-provoking and hard-hitting four-part docuseries, “We Need to Talk About Cosby.” The unflinching look at the messy entirety of Bill Cosby’s infamous life and influential career received a world premiere Jan. 22 at the Sundance Film Festival and will drop Sunday, Jan. 30, on Showtime.

The East Bay resident, intrepid filmmaker, no-BS CNN commentator and standup comedian remains undeterred by the outrage that started jamming his Instagram and twitter accounts in the week before the series bowed. (Of late, the Palo Alto native’s handles have been flooded with respect and props from the likes of Kerry Washington and Questlove, amongst others.)

“I was always preparing for this,” he said a few days before the online Sundance premiere. “I would be foolish not to prepare for it and not anticipate it. But it’s just knowing that there are people who are fans of mine who are not going to be fans of mine any more because even if they think Bill Cosby did it, they don’t think the Black community should talk about it.”

The creator of CNN’s “The United Shades of America” understands his community’s wariness given the rancid history of America’s racism but he is resolute in wanting us to discuss and confront the hard questions presented by the case of Cosby. The 84-year-old disgraced performer — now out of prison — had a phenomenal, groundbreaking career blighted forever by the more than 60 sexual assault allegations levied against him. Before that, Cosby opened the door for more than a few Black entertainers. His highly respected comedy albums sold millions of copies and he was the first Black actor to win an Emmy (for “I Spy”). His ‘70s cartoon series “Fat Albert” represented the woefully underrepresented while his beloved “The Cosby Show” became must-see TV for families in the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s and established a Black middle-class family as an American role model.

America, back then, loved, respected and learned from him.

Those achievements should not go ignored, Bell says. Neither should the allegations and accounts from the scores of women who say he sexually assaulted them (some appear in the documentary series).

“If we want to have the most helpful conversation about it then we need to talk about all of it,” he said.

It’s a painful, complex and hard conversation to have, Bell admits. And it’s even more difficult when it’s about a celebrity who influenced so many and shaped their lives and careers for the better, including Bell who grew up in a “Cosby world.” He recounts in the series how Cosby inspired him to pen a Time essay, “There’s So Much to Talk About Cosby.”

“I think I’m doing this film because Bill Cosby taught me to do this film,” he says.” “He told me to be good. He told me to try to be a good person … to stand up for Black people. That’s all embedded in this.”

The project almost didn’t get off the ground, with Bell pondering at difficult points whether to pull the plug. An early roadblock was the reluctance of others to speak on camera about Cosby — a problem, Bell said, that torpedoed other “Cosby” projects. Then came COVID-19, which shut down production for a while.

The series was born while Cosby was in prison. His conviction was overturned June 30, 2021, while Bell and his crew were wrapping up filming in Philadelphia — Cosby’s hometown and near where he had been serving his sentence. They rushed to get footage of his release.

“I thought OK now (while Cosby was serving time) we can have the big Cosby conversation so I reached out to a lot of people who were not interested in having the big Cosby conversation and so, at some point, I was like…maybe this is a bad idea.”

Bell said those who agreed to be interviewed ranged from Cosby’s accusers, comedians, a handful of actors, journalists, experts on sexual abuse, and Temple University academic Marc Lamont Hill, whose comments led Cosby to condemn the university, his alma mater..

Although a few people Bell queried ultimately said no, they did speak to him anonymously and provided insight that steered the series. He valued what he was told and will not name names.

“It was just clear that people also felt like there was a sense of wanting to talk about it, but also understanding — especially if you were connected to Cosby — that if you talk about it you’re dividing your audience, you’re dividing your fans you’re dividing your family. And especially since he’s in prison why would I poke at that hornet’s nest, especially if you’re Black. And then once he got out, I’m sure all those people were like ‘Oh, thank God I said no.’”

Bell hopes that  “We Need to Talk About Cosby” fuels debate and change and prompts American to revisit the “racial reckoning” from 2020.