Lee Daniels Says He Would Cast Jussie Smollett Again Regardless of Hate Crime Hoax: ‘He Was a Son to Me’
Smollett was found guilty of staging a hate crime hoax in March 2022.
Lee Daniels is still rooting for Jussie Smollett despite the actor’s 2019 hate crime hoax.
“I’d work with him again,” Daniels told The Breakfast Club at around the 40:50 minute mark in the video below. “I’d cast him in something. He was a son to me. And he also represented me. And he also represented the movement that I tried to start, which I didn't know I was starting. I was so busy, worried about Cookie's hat and the music that we were playing [on Empire], this was before Insecure, this was before Black Panther. We started it.”
The director added, “I was so worried about getting everything right that I didn't know what was happening in the zeitgeist.”
The Empire creator described Smollett’s hate crime hoax as “complicated,” explaining that he still doesn’t understand what happened. “Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. People say he didn’t do it, he did do it. God bless him on his journey.”
In January 2019, Smollett—who is gay and Black—accused two men of attacking him late at night while he was on his way home. He said they lobbed racist and homophobic slurs at him, wrapped a rope around his neck, and poured bleach on him.
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Authorities later declared the incident to be fake, saying Smollett paid two brothers $3,500 to pretend to attack him. Authorities also claimed Smollett fabricated the crime because he was unhappy with his Empire salary.
In March 2022, he was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months felony probation, $120,106 in restitution, and had to pay a $25,000 fine for the bogus attack and for filing a police report. He was eventually written out of Empire’s Season 6.
