In 2019, Jussie Smollett reported a physical assault and hate crime against him, claiming two men attacked him and threw racial slurs at him outside his apartment. However, the two men later admitted they were paid by Smollett to stage the incident, revealing they were his colleagues. Smollett was charged with sixteen felony counts for filing a false police report, but the charges were dropped in exchange for sixteen hours of community service. Smollett later filed a counterclaim against the Chicago police for malicious prosecution, stating he was the victim of “mass public ridicule and harm.”
Five years later, Smollett is speaking out about staying out of the public eye. Even after the indictment, Smollett maintains that he is innocent saying that there was “no way” the public was going to believe a “stupid rumor.”
The star, who just finished a five-month stint in rehab for substance abuse earlier this year is currently promoting his latest film Lost Holliday where he stars as the titular character and also writes and directs the film. Since being indicted, Smollett has lived with a pretty helpful mantra:
“Life is about holding on for five more minutes… and five more after that.”
The former Empire star had this to say about what he has been thinking of in the five years since the incident happened:
“I didn’t know how to connect the dots, I really genuinely did not know. I couldn’t make sense of what was going on, and I couldn’t make sense of what people were actually thinking. What exactly do they think happened? I couldn’t put two and two together.”
Smollett felt there were people who were against him, thinking that they “had a mission.“
He added that he was hurt from the situation of it all and says that is “not going to sit here and try to act to the world as if I was fine.”
“I felt very disconnected from that. I still to this day can’t entirely make sense of, ‘What the f**k was that?’ But obviously it was painful.”
Smollett’s latest film Lost Holliday also stars Vivica A. Fox and is currently showing in select AMC theaters in the US.
Sources: CBS News, People, Reuters