Six years after making headlines for working at a Trader Joe’s, “The Cosby Show” actor Geoffrey Owens is opening up once more about the reality of being a “middle-class actor.”

During an interview with Atlanta radio station V-103 earlier this month, Owens − who was promoting his new film, “Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza” − said he is still struggling to make a living. “I struggle every day to make my ends meet,” the 63-year-old Owens said. “People have a false impression of what the average, what I call ‘middle-class actor’ makes, and their ability to make a living in the industry.”

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The average salary for an actor was about $62,000 in 2023, according to the U.S. Labor of Bureau Statistics, although it’s unclear exactly what Owens makes. This included actors who participate in theatrical performances, in addition to television, radio, video and film productions.

Owens shares the screen in “Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza” with Tommy Davidson. Directed by Noel Calloway, the family-friendly Christmas movie is about a substitute teacher, known as Mr. Santa, arriving days before a high school’s Christmas show. Rapper Nicki Minaj even gifted $25,000 to Owens, who ended up donating the lump sum to the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actors Fund), in honor of Earle Hyman, who played Bill Cosby’s father, Russell Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” according to USA TODAY reporting.

During his V-103 interview, Owens said he was recognized in public more often following the Trader Joe’s news than he was while actively playing in “The Cosby Show” during the 1980s and ’90s.

He also unveiled during his interview that he had quit working at Trader Joe’s right after the shopper snapped his photo and before the news broke, because he anticipated the reaction.

“It wasn’t like I quit because I knew I was going to be making a lot of money soon or anything,” Owens said. “I just felt like I wasn’t going to be able to handle that kind of scrutiny, that kind of attack on my privacy basically.”