Lee Daniels has opened up about his close relationship with Jussie Smollett during his appearance on The Breakfast Club.
This comes five years after the actor was found guilty of fabricating evidence of a racial attack against him.
In a Monday interview with Charlamagne Tha God on The Breakfast Club, Lee Daniels noted:
“Jussie is a tough case, but he also says he would be open to casting the actor in another project. I’d work with him again.“I’d cast him in something. He was a son to me and he also represented me. He also represented the movement that I tried to start, which I didn’t know I was starting. I was so busy, worried about Cookie’s hat and the music that we were playing [on ‘Empire’]. This was before Insecure, and this was before ‘Black Panther.’ We started it.”
Lee Daniels continued, “I was so worried about getting everything right that I didn’t know what was happening in the world. That whole situation was complicated. I still don’t know what to believe. Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. People say he didn’t do it; he did do it. God bless him on his journey.”
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Jussie, a black gay guy in Hollywood, claimed in 2019 that he was attacked by two men one evening as he was leaving a sandwich store.
The males, he said, put bleach on him, wrapped a rope around his neck, and uttered derogatory remarks about race and homosexuality.
Law enforcement later claimed, however, that the 41-year-old bribed two brothers for $3,500 to fabricate a hate crime attack against him following an inquiry.
Law enforcement further asserted that Jussie’s discontent with the pay he received for his five seasons on “Empire” was the reason for this conduct.
