Jussie Smollett says that, despite years of controversy over his alleged 2019 hate crime hoax, his account of what happened has “never” changed.
The Empire actor spoke with Variety ahead of Netflix’s upcoming documentary The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, dropping August 22.
“The villains are the two people who assaulted me, the Chicago Police Department and, if I may be so brave, the mayor,” Smollett said, referring to Rahm Emanuel, who served from 2011 to 2019 and is the brother of Hollywood executive Ari Emanuel.
Smollett insists he was targeted in a hate crime and claims Chicago’s political power structure worked to frame him, possibly to deflect attention from the 2014 police killing of Laquan McDonald — a Black 17-year-old shot by white officer Jason Van Dyke. That case led to a federal judge ordering the police department to implement sweeping reforms just days before Smollett reported his attack.
“Could it be that they had just found out about the missing minutes and the missing tape from the murder of Laquan McDonald? Could it be that the mayor helped hide that?” Smollett asked. “We’re living in a world where the higher-ups, their main mission, in order to do all of the underhanded things that they’re doing, is to distract us with the shiny object.”
He added, “Every single other person’s story has changed multiple times. Mine has never. I have nothing to gain from this.”
Smollett maintains that two masked men hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him during the attack — even though brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo have testified under oath that they staged the incident at his request.
Although his felony disorderly conduct conviction was overturned on a technicality in 2024, Jussie Smollett’s years-long legal battle left his public image badly damaged.
Now, he’s working on a professional comeback with a new single, “Break Out,” a spot on Fox’s reality series Special Forces, and his latest film The Last Holliday, which he wrote, directed, and starred in alongside Vivica A. Fox and his fiancé, Jabari Redd.
Still, Smollett admits he’s aware of the lingering perceptions about him.
“I’m still insecure when I meet people for the first time,” he said. “I don’t know if they are coming into the room thinking that I’m this trash person who did something that I didn’t do, or if they are thinking that I am this good person who got a raw deal. Or if they’re not thinking anything and they’re just coming in … I would rather the latter.”
He added, “I saw firsthand how narratives are built. I saw firsthand the way that someone can take the exact opposite of who you are and literally sell it. And people will be like, ‘I believe it!’ God rest his soul, but homeboy Michael Jackson tried to warn us.”
In another moment from the interview, Smollett said, “To be honest with you, I don’t really know. I’m not an investigative reporter or a detective. I can’t sit and tell you exactly, beat by beat, what happened. I can only tell you what did not happen. And what did not happen is the story that’s been out there for almost seven years, that somehow I would have even a reason to do something as egregious as this.”
