Jussie Smollett is reflecting on his “darkest day” — the day he was arrested — five years after it happened.
via: USA Today
The actor and former "Empire" star, who was found guilty in 2021 of staging a racist and homophobic attack in January 2019, reflected on healing from the legal ordeal in an interview with People magazine published Saturday.
"I've moved on and I know that the world, one day, and it might be long after I'm gone, who knows, but one day the world is going to fix this," Smollett told the outlet. "I just can't wait for that to happen because I have a life to live. But the world is going to fix it all."
In December 2021, Smollett – who is Black and gay – was found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct, one count for each separate time he was charged with lying to police in the days immediately after the alleged attack. Smollett told police someone put a noose around his neck and yelled racist and homophobic slurs. According to police, he also told detectives the attackers yelled, "This is MAGA country!" before fleeing the scene.
He was subsequently sentenced to 150 days in county jail and 30 months of felony probation, as well as ordered to pay restitution of $120,106 and a $25,000 fine. Smollett was released from jail after six days due to the pending appeal for his conviction.
Brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo testified during Smollett's trial that the actor recruited them to fake an attack near his home in downtown Chicago in January 2019. They said Smollett orchestrated the hoax, telling them to rough him up in view of a surveillance camera and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media.
In February, Smollett appealed his conviction to the Illinois Supreme Court, claiming he is protected by double jeopardy. An Illinois appeals court affirmed his disorderly conduct conviction and jail sentence in a 2-1 opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court in December 2023.
Smollett recalled the emotional aftermath of his high-profile hate crime case in his interview with People magazine.
"I was numb," Smollett said. "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."
The Emmy-nominated actor also opened up about hitting rock bottom with his February 2019 arrest.
"That was a pretty dark day because that's when everything clicked to me of what was happening," Smollett said. "A lot of things tested my strength, a lot of things tested my mental, but the one thing I never lost — I never started thinking that I am somebody that I'm not. That is the one thing that did not happen."
Despite his past legal troubles, Smollett said he has to "move forward."
"I'm not going to sit here and victimize myself and be like 'Woe is me,' because there's so many people that don't have the platform or the resources that I have to protect themselves," Smollett said. "I'm very well aware of my privilege in this situation. That's why there's a certain point where it's just like, I can't hold on to the pain."
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Smollett returns to the silver screen with the self-directed drama "The Lost Holliday," starring Smollett alongside Jabari Redd and Vivica A. Fox.
He attended a New York City screening of the film on Wednesday.
"I want my future kid to look at me and be like, 'Yo, he did that. He got through things, and he created a world, or attempted to create a world and leave it just a tiny bit, or a lot of it, better than it was when he found it," Smollett told People magazine. "I just really want my kid to like me and be proud of me. I'm doing all of this stuff for my kid, for one day them to read this conversation and just be like, 'Oh, he said that he was doing this for us. And he did.' "
Even with his uncertain legal fate, Smollett remains optimistic "because the universe takes care of all things, and the universe shows the truth."
"You got to look at those bad moments in your life and think, 'Huh, if they were to make a two-hour film about my life when I'm done, that would probably be a seven-minute storyline at most,' " Smollett said. "All of the other things that you do in your life should be able to hopefully outweigh things that you went through that are really, really difficult."
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