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Empire Actor Jussie Smollett leaves the Cook County Jail in Chicago on Thursday after posting a bond. On Friday, the producers of the series announced that they would remove his character from the last episodes of this season.
Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images
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Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images
Empire Actor Jussie Smollett leaves the Cook County Jail in Chicago on Thursday after filing a bond. On Friday, the producers of the series announced that they would remove his character from the last episodes of this season.
Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images
Just one day after Jussie Smollett was officially in danger, arrested in Chicago for filing a false police report, the Empire The work of the actor also seems to be compromised. The executive producers of the Fox program announced Friday that his character, Jamal, would not appear in the last episodes of the current season.
"The events of the past few weeks have been extremely emotional for all of us – Jussie has been an important member of our EMPIRE family for five years and we care deeply about him, and while these allegations are very disturbing, we place our trust in the system. as the process unfolds, "says a statement signed by Lee Daniels, Danny Strong and five other producers.
"We are also aware of the effects of this process on the actors and team members working on our series," they continued, "and to avoid further disruption on the set, we decided to remove the role of "Jamal" of the final, two episodes of the season. "
The announcement follows a press conference on Thursday, in which Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett had organized the hate crime he reported last month. The incident – which Smollett allegedly simulated with the help of two brothers that he would have paid $ 3,500 – was orchestrated "because he was not happy with his salary "explained Johnson.
Please find a new statement from Executive Producers Empire, Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer:
"The events of recent weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us …"
– 20th Century Fox TV (@ 20centuryfoxTV) February 22, 2019
The police official said that Smollett had performed the "stunt shot" after a racist and homophobic letter that he had received a week earlier that he would also have falsified did not succeed in attracting the attention that he desired. "So," concluded Johnson, "he concocted a story about being attacked."
The Smollett legal team, meanwhile, has rebuffed the charges, for which he faces up to three years in prison. And they put them in the account of politics.
"Today, we have seen an organized police show that has no place in the American legal system.The presumption of innocence, the foundation of the search for justice, has been trampled on costs of Mr Smollett and in particular on the eve of an election of mayors, "said his lawyers a statement on Thursday.
"Mr. Smollett is a young man of irreproachable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly retains his innocence and feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to evade due process and surrender directly. struggle."
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