Movies
What Really Happened to Jussie Smollett? A New Netflix Documentary Promises Fresh Insights.
The whole confusing saga, plus the film’s new claims, explained.
By
Nadira Goffe
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Aug 22, 20255:53 PM
Netflix
Just when we thought we were finally done with the whirlwind saga of the alleged 2019 hate crime against Empire actor Jussie Smollett—“whirlwind,” of course, being a reference to the shocking twist that Smollett might have been lying about the whole thing—Netflix, in customary fashion, has come a knockin’. A new documentary, The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, which premiered on Friday, seeks to answer its own titular question once and for all. The documentary retells the erratic epic from two perspectives: that of those who maintain, like the Chicago courts decided, that Smollett definitely lied about being attacked by white men in the streets of Chicago, and those who have found so-called evidence that may prove the contrary. Below, I present to you a breakdown of the initial alleged hoax and all of the ways the new documentary is pushing against what we all thought we knew (or what we had forgotten because it was way too confusing to follow at the time).
Before we even begin to get into this new documentary, can you give me a brief rundown of the initial saga? It was so confusing!
On Jan. 29, 2019, Jussie Smollett—a Black, openly gay actor who had risen to popularity while on the hit Fox drama series Empire—filed a police report stating that he was the victim of a homophobic and racist hate crime while in downtown Chicago. He alleged that, as he was approaching his residence at around 2 a.m., two masked men, one of whom he said he believed to be white, had shouted racial and homophobic slurs at him, poured “an unknown substance” (which Smollett can be seen identifying as bleach in police bodycam footage that was released much later) on him, and tied a noose around his neck. Upon follow-up questioning, Smollett additionally alleged that the assailants had made references to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Around this time, it was also revealed that the FBI was investigating a letter that had been sent to Fox’s offices in Chicago prior to the alleged attack. The letter was purportedly targeted at Smollett and contained an unidentified white powder. After news of the attack broke, Smollett received a large outpouring of support from fans and fellow notable figures, including Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, who both condemned the reported act as an example of an attempted modern-day lynching.
Chicago PD began investigating the report as a “possible hate crime” but failed to find significant photo or video footage of the incident,