Jussie Smollett is talking out about his ongoing authorized case stemming from a 2019 racist and homophobic assault that he allegedly staged towards himself.
The Empire alum, who not too long ago returned to the large display screen in The Misplaced Holliday — which he directed, co-wrote, produced and stars in — spoke about his ongoing effort to enchantment his 2021 disorderly conduct conviction after he was accused of staging that assault and mendacity about it to the Chicago police.
In a sit-down interview with Leisure Tonight seemingly executed as a part of his Misplaced Holliday promotion, which has included a smattering of interviews, the actor continued to preserve his innocence, saying he’s nonetheless preventing for the reality of what occurred to emerge.
“I want to have all of these things in my life, and I don’t want to have a felony on my record for something that I didn’t do,” Smollett mentioned partially. “That’s what we’re fighting for. I know that on the surface it probably seems like why doesn’t he just serve the time, why doesn’t he just let this go. It would be easier if I had in fact done this to say that I did it. I wouldn’t have spent almost $3 million of my own money. I wouldn’t have had a trial.”
After Smollett was arrested in 2019 and accused of staging the assault, the fees towards him have been dropped after which refiled a yr later and he was convicted in 2021 of 5 felony counts of disorderly conduct. He’s since appealed that conviction, with the case at present being reviewed by the Illinois Supreme Court docket.
He admits that as an “entertainer” and “businessman,” he ought to cease preventing.
“But as a human being and as a man, as a Black man and as an openly gay Black man, I have a problem with letting them win on something they shouldn’t be able to,” Smollett mentioned. “I’m a grown man and something happened. I can’t tell exactly what did happen, but I can tell you what did not happen. That’s what I have to sit on. No matter how much people are yelling in my face, saying ‘You’re a liar, you’re a liar.’ No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I don’t want them to believe that, but if that is what they believe, that’s on you.”
Wanting again on the almost six years since Smollett mentioned he was attacked in early 2019, he says there are “a million things” he would have executed in another way. Particularly, he regrets doing a high-profile sit-down about what he claimed occurred to him, earlier than he was charged with disorderly conduct, with Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts.
“I wish I hadn’t done the interview,” Smollett mentioned. “I never wanted to. I watched it, and I was mortified.”
Smollett final yr reportedly entered rehab for substance abuse, one thing that he mentioned he was instructed he “couldn’t” do beforehand.
“I’ve wanted to do it for a number of years. And to be quite honest, I was told that I couldn’t,” he mentioned.
He argued that one of many challenges of “fighting the very things that are untrue” is how “some truths did come into play that they used to kind of to prove things that were not true.”
“So there were those moments where I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, my life is kind of — oh, well, I didn’t do that.’ And they’re like, ‘But you did this.’ And I’m like ‘Ah, I did do that. I did buy that.’ And there are things like that that I’ve had to talk to my family about, that I’ve had to talk to friends about,” he mentioned. “I’m OK with accepting responsibility for things that I’ve actually done. I’m just not OK with accepting responsibility for things that I did not do.”
Smollett maintained that he has not modified his story all through this ordeal.
“I’ve stood by, not my truth but the truth for the entire time, almost six years,” he mentioned. “I haven’t switched my story up. I haven’t changed anything that I ever said. I stand by every single thing that I’ve ever said. Everyone else in the situation, every single person, has changed their story numerous times.”
