Now that embattled actor Jussie Smollett has been temporarily freed on bond during his conviction appeal and made his directorial debut on BET+, Smollett has the time today to call people out.
In December 2021, the former “Empire” star was convicted on five of six counts of disorderly conduct for staging a fake homophobic and racist beatdown in the winter of 2019.
Smollett vehemently maintains his innocence and went on a tirade against the former friends in his life and those were nothing more than “snakes” in his grass.
As bad as things got during his abject international humiliation and condemnation, a friend shared some invaluable advice that helped Smollett cope with being viewed as a scourge of American life.
“You may look at everything now and think that this is bad. But at the end of the day, you needed to mow the lawn so you could see all the snakes in your grass,” Smollett said on “Sway in the Morning” radio show on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
The 40-year-old, who just finished directing, co-writing, co-producing and co-financing the love story “B-Boy Blues” which is now streaming on BET+, knows about creating narratives on TV shows and movies. Therefore, he actually understands why the public felt compelled to vilify him mercilessly.
“The way that it was served to everybody I absolutely understand why people felt betrayed,” Smollett said.
“I didn’t know what was happening then. I didn’t know how bad it was getting. For whatever reason, I genuinely thought that people were going to be like ‘there’s no way that he did some b–h s–t like that.’ You know, I’m just like ‘y’all know me.’ ”
Smollett, for sure, is keeping score on the folks who embraced him after the scandal broke and the folks who left skidmarks away from his camp. He vows to hold “some people accountable for the things they said” and “for the ways that they reacted.”
What was most crushing to him, Smollett said, is when he was convicted and incarcerated, some of those so-called friends never called to check on him.
“Half of those people should have picked up the f—ing phone and called me because they had my number,” he said.
Listen to the entirety of the interview below:
