It’s been 30 years since the Cosby Show debuted on our TV screens. Thirty years! Let that sink in for a minute. Now, as we all feel a little bit older, our favorite son, Malcolm Jamal Warner (Theo) is all grown up. He’s been doing a lot lately: movies, television series, etc. The actor, poet and musician still manages to keep his skin, hair and body healthy.
“I’m not a health nut,” Warner confesses. “But I’m very aware of what happens when I don’t watch what I eat and don’t work out. “The Tuskegee Airmen” and “Fool’s Gold” are perfect examples,ha! I love to eat and drink and as I’ve gotten older, I can most definitely see how my metabolism has slowed down so as a result, I am very conscious of what I put into my body. I do go through cycles though. I know the top of my range so I know when to pull it back, however, I’m noticing how much longer it takes to bring the body back to where I prefer.”
When asked about why he cut his dredlocs, Malcolm describes, “My ten and a half year journey was done. When I committed to letting my hair loc I said I’d do ten years and after ten and a half I was ready. My manager and agents told me that locs would limit me getting roles, which may or may have not been true, but I have three television series, four independent films, and a major studio film with them so my locs are well-documented. Everyone I knew who had cut theirs all stressed to me not to cut them until I was absolutely ready so as not to regret doing so. I took their advice and have no regrets at all. Live your life with no regrets.”
As he tells it, his journey as an actor was almost serendipitous. In an effort to find Warner an after-school activity, his mother enrolled him in an acting workshop. But she was no stage mother, Warner emphasizes. In fact, when an agent saw him perform in a community theater production and wanted to sign him on as a client, his mother refused. At the time, she was going to school and in no position to drag her son to auditions. The following year, when the same agent saw Warner in another production and again offered to take him on as a client, his mother said no yet again. But Warner was fortunate to have an acting teacher who was willing to accompany the talented youngster to auditions. Warner signed with the agent and continued to do local theater and a handful of day player roles on such shows as “Fame” and “Call to Glory.”
His life-altering experience was landing “The Cosby Show” during its national search for a young actor to play Theo. “They were looking for a 6-foot-2 15-year-old, and I was a 5-foot-5 13-year-old,” he recalls. “It was the last day of auditioning, Good Friday, 1984. It was 6:30 in the evening, and my agent was begging the casting director to stay so I can come in and let me read. I did and I was called back for network callback that Monday. I was one of three actors, one from New York, one from Chicago, and one from L.A.—that was me.
