(CNN)Actor Jussie Smollett is on his way to jail for lying to police and orchestrating a hate crime scam, but with his trial largely over, questions are now turning to the former ‘Empire’ star’s future in Hollywood.
On a potential return to acting, a rep for the Smollett family told CNN, “He would clearly love to do it,” but also that “everything is up in the air” at the moment.
Hollywood is no stranger to granting redemption to talented men and women who make mistakes, whether it be a crime that sends them to Twitter jail or jail. The question is whether Smollett will clear the invisible bar so he can return to the big and small screens, or end up on a list of uncastable actors.
There are signs that at least some notable Hollywood figures have not distanced themselves from Smollett, who got his start in the industry at age 12 on a short-lived ABC sitcom, in which he starred alongside his siblings.
At a hearing Thursday where Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in prison, Smollett’s team presented the judge with letters of support from actor Samuel L. Jackson and his wife LaTanya, among others.
In their letter, the couple argued that Smollett should be spared jail time and that the 39-year-old “has already suffered a ton of punishment as this situation has ruined his existing career and damaged his reputation.”
Smollett’s sister, Jurnee Smollett, arguably the best-known of the family’s six entertaining siblings, also remains well connected and respected in the industry. Even as the family was coping with Jussie Smollett’s legal woes, she was a cast member on HBO’s horror drama Lovecraft Country, which debuted in 2020. (CNN, like HBO, is owned by WarnerMedia.)
On the press tour for that series, the actress, known for her previous roles on shows like WGN’s Underground and HBO’s True Blood, spoke publicly about her brother’s scandal in detail and reiterated her support for him.
Smollett was previously found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct in December for making false reports about what he called hate crimes against gay men and black people. The actor, who is black and gay, told Chicago Police Department that in January 2019, two unidentified men attacked him, shouted racial and homophobic slurs at him, doused him in bleach and tied a noose around his neck.
Chicago police were investigating the case as a possible hate crime, and at the time, celebrities and politicians rushed to publicly defend it.
That support faltered as the incident’s twists and turns unfolded, particularly when investigators soon discovered the actor had orchestrated the incident and paid two brothers he knew from the Fox drama Empire to expose the incident to the public to stage.
On Thursday, the silence from some of Smollett’s original defense attorneys was deafening.
Actress Yvette Nicole Brown was an exception. Among those who expressed them “lovefor the Smollett family in 2019, Brown shared her thoughts on Friday, tweeting, “The way that judge reprimanded Jussie, you’d think he murdered two people or used a gun instead of a taser on a black man in traffic.” applied Stop.”
Smollett’s attorneys have said they will appeal.
CNN’s Jason Kravarik and Brad Parks contributed to this report.
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