In 1987, four years into her run on ‘The Cosby Show,’ her spinoff, ‘A Different World’, came out. The series, which was about Denise being off at college, was short-lived after some unexpected news came out.
Bonet would find herself being written off of a show that was based on her character after filming just over 20 episodes for the series. But what could possibly have made that happen?
At First Sight
The couple first laid eyes on each other (in person) in 2005, but it wasn’t necessarily the first time he’d seen her. After all, she was super famous from her role on NBC. She recalled that when they met, “love came, and it came big.” But instead of running away, she said it was almost as if he picked her up and “threw me over his shoulder like a caveman.”
Well, it’s no surprise with those muscles! Lisa would later disclose that his caveman-like behavior was one of the first things she fell in love with.
First Break
Lisa Bonet was trained as an actress at the Celluloid Actor’s Studio in Hollywood, although she started acting in commercials when she was just 11 years old. 1984, however, was when her world changed forever. That was the year she was cast in her breakthrough role as Denise Huxtable – and life would never be the same.
In all, she starred in more than 100 episodes of the hit show. She was such a popular character that she wound up with a show of her own.
Let Go
When producers of 'A Different World' found out that Bonet was pregnant, they wrote her character out. She gave birth to her daughter later that year and took some time off to just be a new mother.
The actress did wind up coming back to 'The Cosby Show' the following year, in 1988. But in the early 1990s, she left the show to pursue acting in film, appearing with Will Smith in the 1998 film, 'Enemy of the State'.
Breaking into Film
A couple of years after making her film debut, Bonet appeared with John Cusack in the 2000 rom-com/drama, 'High Fidelity'. In 2002, she played Heather Lelache in the made-for-TV film, 'Lathe of Heaven', and the next year she was back on the big screen as Queenie, in 'Biker Boyz'. But after she got her taste of the differences between television and film, she made the choice to go back to where it all began: the TV screen in living rooms all across America.
But that doesn’t mean she was entirely finished in film. “I have a desire to create more film, more beauty, more art, more love,” said the actress, “but I don’t feel desperate. It’s not about creating or building a career.”