Lee Daniels "beyond embarrassment" for rushing for Jussie Smollett's defense – Deadline

When Jussie Smollett claimed to have been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack on January 29, Empire The co-creator and executive producer, Lee Daniels, made a passionate statement in a video deleted since on Instagram, claiming it was "just another day of f * cking in America".

Now that Smollett has been publicly accused of orchestrating the attack, Daniels said Vulture he regrets to rush to judge.

"I'm more than embarrassed," he said. "I think when that happened, I had a flash of me fleeing the bullies. I had a flash of all my life, my childhood, my youth, to be beaten. "

In an interview published online Tuesday, the Oscar-nominated director said that Smollett looked like a son and that he always has "some doubts" about whether the actor would organize an attack.

"Of course, there is a doubt," said Daniels. "I tell you that because I love him so much. It's the torture I'm in right now, because it's literally if it were to happen to your son and your child, how would you feel? You would have the feeling: "If you like it, my God, please, leave there a glimmer of hope that this story has something real." That's why it was so painful. It was a deluge of pain. "

On the day of the attack, Smollett told the police that he was walking down a Chicago street in the dark, when two unknown assailants approached him and started shouting racial and homophobic slurs. . The actor said that the suspects had beaten him, put a rope around his neck and said: "This is MAGA country".

Vulture reminded Daniels that the Chicago police and local media presumed that Smollett had hired friends to attack him, hoping to get a pay raise on Empire, leaving little doubt that the incident was a "hoax".

"We were not there. I can not judge him, "answered Daniels," It's only for the ferocious lady or the man with that black dress and God, I had to detach myself and stop calling her, because that made me wasting time that I had for my kids, the time that I had for my partner.That affected my mind and other shows, everything. "

Cook County prosecutors indicted Smollett of 16 counts for disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report. The actor has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty. On March 26, the State Attorney's Office quashed the charges.

The city is now suing him in civil court to recover over $ 130,000 that she would have spent on police overtime to investigate the case.

Did he ask if he had followed the blanket breathless in Chicago TribuneDaniels said that there was no time.

"I did not read anything," he said. "I was too busy extinguishing fires."

As a result of the attack, Smollett was eliminated from the last episodes of season 5 of Empire.

It was learned last week that the character of the conflicting actor, Jamal Lyon, was being turned into scripts for the sixth and final season of the Fox series. However, Daniels said the reports were absolutely wrong.

"Jussie will not return to Empire," he tweeted on June 4th.