Geoffrey Owens Bags Tyler Perry Job Offer After Leaving Trader Joes

Days after actor Geoffrey Owens was job shamed after photos of him working at Trader Joe’s went viral, the former Cosby Show actor bagged a job with filmmaker Tyler Perry.

Owens said he first took the job, which he has since quit in the commotion, 15 months ago because he wanted “flexibility” in order to stay in the entertainment industry in between jobs.

But his return to acting may be closer than he originally thought. On Tuesday, Perry offered Owens, 57, a job on an OWN drama he is working on.

“#GeoffreyOwens I’m about to start shooting OWN’s number one drama next weeK! Come join us!!!” Perry tweeted. “I have so much respect for people who hustle between gigs. The measure of a true artist.”

Owens, who has said in the past that he would be reluctant to accept a job as a result of the recent incident, told Entertainment Tonight that Perry’s tweet at him “was kind of cool.”

“I mean, that kind of sounded like he was saying, ‘Come work with me.’ I’m so, like, skeptical. Like, really? Are you actually saying come work with me? Because we’ve never worked together before,” Owens said. “So, that’s a very, very generous thing for him to say. And we’ll see what happens with that. But, that’s encouraging.”

He continued, saying that he’d like to earn the role rather than it be handed to him as a result of his recent publicity.

“I don’t expect to be offered things,” he told ET. “It would be lovely as one of the results of this, some doors open in terms of giving me the opportunity to audition. That, I would appreciate — always, as all actors do. I don’t necessarily feel comfortable being given things as a result of this. I mean, I’m not in a position to turn things down but… I don’t expect that kind of thing. I like the idea of, you know, put me in a room with everyone else and see if I’m the right one for the job.”

Owens said something similar in an interview on Good Morning America Tuesday morning, telling anchor Robin Roberts that he “wouldn’t feel comfortable with someone giving me a job because this happened. I want to get a job because I’m the right person for this job.”

The actor said that he kept his job at Trader Joe’s a secret not because he was ashamed to work there, like many news outlets made him out to be, but because he did not want those working in the entertainment industry to count him out for future projects.

“I made a conscious effort not to let people in my industry know about it, and to a certain extent that may have been wise because some people — they hear you’re working at that kind of job, they think you’re out of the business, you’re not interested in pursuing it anymore. And that wasn’t true,” Owens explained to ET.

“So, I didn’t want anyone to think that, but even beyond that I felt like, I didn’t trust people would be understanding about it. And as we can all see now, I could not have been more wrong. It’s been, across the board, the exact opposite reaction. Everybody is… understanding, sympathetic, sensitive, you know, supportive, encouraging. I didn’t trust people enough. I didn’t give people enough credit, to be honest,” he added.

He thanked those in the industry like Perry who publicly stood up for him following the release of the photos and pressed the significance of “every job” while on GMA.

“There is no job that is better than another job. It might pay better, it might have better benefits, it might look better on a resume and on paper,” Owens said, sporting his Trader Joe’s name badge. “But actually, it’s not better. Every job is worthwhile and valuable, and if we have a rethinking about that because of what has happened to me, that would be great.”