Empire star, Jussie Smollett, sat down with ABC’s Robin Roberts for his first interview following the racist and homophobic attack he suffered in Chicago last month. The interview aired on Good Morning America on Thursday morning.
A brief promo video of the interview was released prior to the show airing, which showed Smollett tearing up after Roberts asked if he feared for his life at any point during the attack.
The interview was the first time the singer/actor answered questions on camera about the incident, which shocked the nation but also brought on an outpouring of support from celebrities and fans who all condemned the discrimination he was subjected to.
Jussie explained he was on a food run when he heard someone trying to get his attention.
“I heard ‘Empire,’ and I don’t answer to ‘Empire.’ My name ain’t ‘Empire,’ and I didn’t answer,” he said. “I kept walking, and then I heard “(Homophobic slur) ‘Empire’ (N-word).’ So, I turned around, and I said, ‘What the f*ck did you just say to me?’
He continued, “And I see the attacker, masked and he said, ‘This MAGA country, (N-word).’ Punches me right in the face. So I punched his a** back. And then we started tussling, and it was very icy.” Smollett said the attack lasted maybe 30 seconds but was unsure of how long it actually went on after the attackers ran off. He told Roberts, “I noticed the rope around my neck, and I started screaming. I said, ‘There’s an (expletive) rope about my neck.’
He then mentioned how after the attack, he was not just disappointed in the people who physically harmed him but also by the willful ignorance of the truth by nay-sayers. He said, “It’s the attackers, but it’s also the attacks. It’s not that you don’t believe this is the truth; you don’t even want to see this is the truth.” He also said he believes that he would have been taken more seriously if the attackers were Muslim or minorities. “It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone black, I feel like the doubters would’ve supported me a lot more, and that says a lot about the place that we are in our country right now,” he said.
Despite the Chicago Police Department’s initial support of Smollett’s claims, the case and Jussie’s credibility had been questioned by the police in recent weeks, as they’d been unable to identify the suspects.
They repeatedly accused Smollett of not immediately turning over his phone records as evidence to prove that he was on a call with his manager, Brandon Z. Moore, when the attack took place as claimed.
Although Smollett eventually handed over his records, they were redacted with Chicago PD describing them as ‘insufficient proof’ of the call.
However, Smollett addressed his initial refusal, claiming it had been due to concern for his privacy. “Because I have private pictures and videos and numbers,” he explained, noting his phone contains “my partner’s number, my family members numbers, my castmates’ numbers, my friends’ numbers, my private emails, my private songs, my private voice memos.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he also revealed how the experience had permanently changed him. He told Roberts, “I will never be the man this did not happen to. I am forever changed, and I don’t subscribe to the idea that everything happens for a reason, but I do subscribe to the idea that we have the right and responsibility to make something meaningful out of the things that happen to us, good and bad.”
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