With his film, The Lost Holliday, making its way to Amazon Prime, Jussie Smollett tapped in to talk with The Big Tigger Morning Show on V-103 in Atlanta this week. The actor discussed the making of the film, upcoming music on the horizon, his time on Empire, and the headline-grabbing aftermath.
LISTEN NOW: Jussie Smollett on 'The Big Tigger Morning Show'
"We had some crazy times behind-the-scenes and everything like that," Jussie says of his time on the hit show. "A lot of those people are, I have nothing but love for them, and some of them are lifelong, you know, Taraji is my sister for life already. There are people on there that I love, Terrence. I love Yazz, Trai, like everybody. Ta'Rhonda came to the screening of 'The Lost Holliday' when we did it in Chicago. It's all love there"
"The aftermath sucked," Smollett adds. "I ain't gonna sit here and tell y'all it didn't. It really sucked, but you know, life is life and you keep it moving."
When asked if he's better or worse from the aftermath, Jussie admits it's both. "Both because I feel like there was a part of me for a long time that was that was like, well, 'when am I going to feel like me again?' And not me, the public me, but like, 'when am I going to feel like me again?' This happy, joyous, laughing person again. 'When am I going to feel like that?' And there was a fear that I would never, that somehow this would be, this could easily become like my villain origin story... and then you end up being like 'F the people,' but it never became that."
"I miss the kind of the joy of going into and talking to people without feeling like they have any like real preconceived notions about you or believe something or anything like that," he continues. "I think that that's been painful to kind of step out of, but it's also been a very freeing experience in the sense that I've been forced to not care what people think, you know what I mean? I really, I can be honest and say that I spent a lot of time caring what people thought or trying to represent a certain thing so that everybody could be proud instead of just being like, 'listen, you make the people proud by just being who you are.'"
"I'm more aware, my eyes are more open. I used to just pray for humility. Now I pray for discernment as well, and I never really paid attention to my discernment, but I got that on lock now."
To hear much more from Jussie Smollett, check out the full interview above.