Jussie Smollett dropped from the final episodes of the season five of the popular TV series Empire following his arrest for allegedly staging his own ‘homophobic and racial’ attack, where he has since been charged and released on a bail of $100,000.
According to a statement issued by the Fox series executives Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo, and Dennis Hammer, the “disturbing” nature of the allegations against Smollett led them to loosen ties with his character Jamall (jussie Smollett dropped).
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us. Jussie has been an important member of our Empire family for the past five years and we care about him deeply,” the statement reads.
“While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out. We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”
Jussie Smollett dropped pending the conclusion of his case, as the Jamal character which he plays will cease from the last episode of season five.
Although the Chicago Police Department in a Press conference on Thursday had accused Jussie Smollett of carrying out a disgraceful publicity stunt for fame and increase his poor paycheck from the Empire FOX series, sources are refuting that claim, saying the actor actually earns $125,000 per episode! which is way more than what others get.
Chicago Superintendent of Police, Eddie T. Johnson in a Press conference on Thursday, had expressed disgust towards the Empire actor, where he said:
“Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career,” a visibly angry Johnson said. “I am left hanging my head asking ‘why?’. Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? … How can an individual who’s been embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap everyone in the city in the face with these false claims?”
..more update to come..