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Jussie Smollett says his character of Jamal on “Empire” connects with those not accepted for who they are
I’ve gotten completely hooked on the Fox drama Empire.
It is worth watching for Taraji P. Henson alone! She is a force of nature as Cookie.
Empire marks the first time on network television that a gay character has been this central to a show about the historically homophobic hip-hop industry.
The significance of this is not lost on actor Jussie Smollett who plays Jamal, an openly gay musician vying with his two straight brothers to be their music mogul father’s heir apparent. The father has a disease that is going to render him crippled and incapacitated in a matter of three years.
‘What we’ve learned is art can change the world,’ Smollett said at a recent event in Beverly Hills for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
‘If you can see a little bit of your journey in (Jamal’s), that’s beautiful. That’s what (series creator) Lee Daniels is known for – for telling the truth. The good, bad and the ugly so we have no choice but to be truthful in the way I portray (Jamal) and the way that he’s written.’
While Jamal’s father (played by Terrence Howard) is not accepting of his son’s being gay and was physically abusive to him as a child because of it, his mother (Henson) is his biggest champion.
Smollett says he’s gotten a lot of positive feedback about his character – especially from young people.
‘I get so many responses that it’s overwhelming,’ he says.
So why is Jamal connecting with so many viewers?
‘He’s just a guy trying to make it work and I think he speaks volumes – not just for the LGBT community but for humanity in the sense that there’ no one in the world who at one time in their life has not felt accepted for who they are.’
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Jim says:
LOVE LOVE LOVE this show! Lee Daniels has created a brilliant TV series and cast it beautifully. This family makes “Dynasty” look like “Sesame Street!”
Tommy Marx says:
I am obsessed with this show. When Cookie said, “Oh, and Anika, THIS is an ass,” I got up out of my chair and hooted. And I don’t even dislike Anika. I feel sorry for her that she’s being played and, as smart as she is, she doesn’t realize it when it comes to Lucious.
As for Jim’s comment, Empire is the first time I can really remember being so excited about a show and so impatient about seeing the next episode since I was a kid and stole my Dad’s portable TV on Wednesday nights so I could watch Dynasty.
Although please Lee do not make Jamal a daddy. Right from the start, with Dynasty and Soap, the gay guy always had to have sex with a woman at some point in his history and father a child so people would know that he was gay, but he wasn’t gay gay. That’s so Raven, but that isn’t so cool.
I’ll still love the show anyway, I just hope it doesn’t fail real gay men to pacify some imagined flaw in straight audiences. It’s 2015. We accept men that like men only. It’s okay. 🙂
Egleys Dorante says:
I love this program, I live in Venezuela and I watch the show every week. I love Jamal and Michael caracters, Jussie I love you and Rafael I love you too, Rafael (Michael) is a successful Venezuelan actor so I´m Venezuelan too.