Geoffrey Owens made the most of his brief time in the spotlight at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.
Months after tabloids revealed his side job at Trader Joe’s, the “Cosby Show” cast member was featured in the SAG Awards’s annual “I am an actor” introduction sequence this year. Early efforts to mock Owens for bagging groceries last September largely backfired, instead giving him a platform to explain the dignity of all honest work. “There is no job that’s better than another,” Owens said at the time.
I’ve given up on #rentlive at the moment to watch the #SAGAwards and am glad I did mainly for this Geoffrey Owens cameo!! Elvin is perfect. pic.twitter.com/0OY2P1dgSG
— Michelle Collins (@michcoll) January 28, 2019
When the camera landed on him at the SAG Awards on Sunday, Owens earned an enthusiastic round of applause. His brief remarks still packed a powerful punch. Here’s what Owens had to say at the ceremony:
Somewhere in the middle of the road of my life, I found myself in the dark wood of unemployment and debt, but instead of switching careers like a sane person, I took a job at the local Trader Joe’s to see if I could hang in there with my career, and it’s actually worked out pretty well. I’m Geoffrey Owens and I am an actor.
It was a classy move from the Screen Actors Guild, and a well-deserved moment of appreciation for Owens, who turned a painful situation into a triumphant one. Surprising as it may be to see someone from our television screen behind a Trader Joe’s register, Owens’s pride in his less-than-glamorous gig sends a great message.
