Jussie Smollett was "numb" when he was accused of staging a hate crime on himself. The former 'Empire' actor was sentenced to 150 days in jail in March 2022 after being found guilty of lying about being a victim of a racist and homophobic attack and making a false police report in 2022, but still insisted he is innocent and initially believed there was "no way" the public would believe a "stupid rumour" spread by "haters". Jussie - who was released on bail six days into his sentence pending his ongoing appeal - told People magazine: "I was numb.
"I didn't know how to connect the dots. I really genuinely did not know. I couldn't make sense of what was going on, and I couldn't make sense of what people were actually thinking .
.. what exactly do they think happened? I couldn't put two and two together.
.. "[The haters] had a mission.
I felt very disconnected from that. I still to this day can't entirely make sense of, 'What the f*** was that?' But obviously it was painful. I certainly am not going to sit here and try to act to the world as if I was fine.
.. "We're still dealing with the repercussions from that narrative.
We're still dealing with that every day." The 42-year-old actor remembered his "darkest day" as being 21 February, 2019, when he was arrested. He said: "That was a pretty dark day because that's when everything clicked to me of what was happening.
"A lot of things tested my strength, a lot of things tested my mental, but the one thing I never lost — I never star.