Prolific filmmaker and TV show producer Lee Daniels admits he was flummoxed by the sensationalized Jussie Smollett arrest, trial and conviction because that person doesn’t resemble the “boy that I cast” and the “boy that I love.”
Smollett, 39, was well into his 30’s when he was cast to play the middle son in the blockbuster series “Empire,” but maintains his boyish looks as far as Daniels is concerned. Daniels confessed on the Fox Soul show “Turnt Out with Ts Madison” that he was traumatized and angered by the entire imbroglio.
“I was [angry]. I was confused,” said Daniels, admitting that he doesn’t know to this day what really transpired in January 2019. While he said the whole episode has created an emotional wound that’s “too painful to talk about,” Daniels said he’s siding with Smollett.
“He says it didn’t happen so I have to believe him because he says it didn’t happen,” Daniels told Madison.
“I have to believe because that’s the boy that I cast and that’s the boy that I love,” Daniels added. When the award-winning and critically-acclaimed director was asked if he cried over the situation, Daniels responded quickly that he sobbed “like a b—-.”
As pop culture now knows, Smollett was convicted on five out of six felony charges of disorderly conduct related to orchestrating a faux beatdown and then perjuring himself repeatedly in an affidavit and in court. He was sentenced to 150 days in the Cook County, Illinois, jail, 30-months on probation, and required to pay a $25K fine and $120K in restitution to the city of Chicago. Smollett was granted release pending his appeal after overwhelming public support.
Check out a brief clip below:
Lee Daniels says “I have to believe him”, as he talks Jussie Smollett hate crime scandal (🎥 @therealtsmadison) pic.twitter.com/nl7k7EWmyP
— BACKUP ACCOUNT (@JasmineBrandTHE) April 6, 2022
