Beverly Johnson: “Bill Cosby Drugged Me”
Beverly Johnson, a model and actress who was the first black woman to grace the cover of the American Vogue, has written an essay in Vanity Fair accusing Bill Cosby of drugging her in the 1980s.
In the essay, Johnson writes she was invited by Cosby to audition for a bit part in The Cosby Show. Cosby, she says, “sometimes used models to portray pregnant women sitting in his office waiting room.” Johnson was looking to break into acting, and had only had a few bit parts so far. She was ecstatic.
Cosby eventually invited her to his house to work on the part. He offered her a cappuccino from a giant espresso machine in his home. Johnson writes that she took a sip and immediately knew she had been drugged because she “was a top model during the ’70s, a period when drugs flowed at parties and photo shoots like bottled water at a health spa.”
She continues:
My head became woozy, my speech became slurred, and the room began to spin nonstop. Cosby motioned for me to come over to him as though we were really about to act out the scene. He put his hands around my waist, and I managed to put my hand on his shoulder in order to steady myself.
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.
Though she says she was affected by the drug at this point, she recalls Cosby yanking her down the stairs and waving down a taxi for her. She attempted to call him to ask why he did such a thing, but Cosby’s wife Camille picked up. She never tried to call again.
Johnson says she struggled with the incident, but never came forward because “black men have enough enemies out there already.” But with other women speaking out about Cosby’s alleged abuse, she decided it was time to come forward.
Cosby and his lawyers have denied all of the allegations against him. He did not comment for the Vanity Fair story.
