In the new Netflix doc The Truth About Jussie Smollett? (streaming August 22), Jussie gets raw, opening up about how the viral response to his 2019 alleged hate crime case hit him on a primal, emotional level.
Smollett reveals the overwhelming outpouring of sympathy and even celebrity superlatives made him feel more dead than helped:
“I felt like I had died, and I was alive to see and what people were saying was so kind, but it was too much for me… I felt extremely embarrassed. I felt extremely emasculated.”
Being Black and openly gay, Smollett says the messaging around the story tipped into surreal: as if the world were delivering his eulogy while he was standing right there reading it.
Fast forward through the legal roller coaster and charges of staging the attack, a conviction that was later overturned, and allegations involving paid actors and police misconduct and Jussie is now offering a clarion call.
