Lee Daniels Finally Breaks Silence on Jussie Smollett Five Years After Hoax

In the years since his conviction of a fake hate crime, Jussie Smollett’s career has taken a major downturn. It doesn’t look like he’ll be able to reach the heights he was approaching during his early years on “Empire,” but he has booked a few jobs here and there. Filmmaker Lee Daniels was once one of the actor/singer’s biggest supporters. However, while appearing on Monday’s episode of “The Breakfast Club,” he described their current relationship as “complicated.”

“He was a son to me. And he also represented me. And he also represented the movement that I tried to start, which I didn’t know I was starting,” Daniels said. “I was so busy, worried about Cookie’s hat and the music that we were playing.”

As previously reported by The Root, back in 2019, Smollett reported that he’d been assaulted by white men who yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him and hung a noose around his neck. During the investigation, Chicago authorities came to believe that he had staged the attack, paying two brothers to beat him up. In December 2021, he was found guilty of six felony counts of disorderly conduct. The case has since been wrapped up in a long appeals process, with Smollett trying to get the conviction overturned.

While the “Precious” director confirms that he would cast Smollett in a project and work with him again, when it comes to that fateful night in Chicago, he’s still torn about what really happened.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to believe,” he said. “People say he didn’t do it, he did do it. God bless him on his journey.”

“The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne Tha God pointed out that Black stars don’t get the same number of second chances when they mess up, so it’s up to artists like Lee to provide them with those opportunities, a sentiment the two-time Oscar nominee seemed to agree with.

Daniels is currently promoting his new horror thriller “The Deliverance,” which premieres Aug. 30 on Netflix and stars Andra Day, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Mo’Nique.