This may not be a surprise to some… but it’s definitely interesting to hear the whole roller coaster ride of how Jussie Smollett got to this low-point in his career.
The Empire actor was living the Hollywood life before his name popped up infamously over the alleged vicious hate crime attack in Chicago — according to sources, Smollett had previously been getting various offers in the entertainment business “every other week, if not weekly” before the attack news broke.
Related: Jussie Smollett Indicted On SIXTEEN Felony Counts!
Sources close to Jussie told TMZ today that the star’s career predictably skyrocketed immediately after the violent hate crime was first reported, and Smollett was being hit up for TV gigs, commercials, appearances, and other entertainment work spanning all of Hollywood pretty much every single day.
It makes sense — his name was constantly in the news and, at the time, he was a very sympathetic figure with his alleged attack and hate crime victimization being apparently well-documented and very timely from a political and cultural perspective.
From So Good… To So Bad
But then… the story changed, and Smollett went from being a media darling to somebody who may have allegedly faked his own attack and lied about it to the cops for some kind of personal gain, whether in his career or on some other unknown level.
Accordingly, ever since that time — and especially since his indictment on 16 felony counts — his career prospects have completely dried up. Not only is he reportedly fielding “zero” calls for new work, Smollett is allegedly “being treated like a pariah,” according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
On the most basic level, it makes sense — after all, Hollywood is content to wait out his indictment and legal battle to see what ends up happening to the TV star. Even Empire producers opted to remove him from the final two episodes of this season in order to smooth things over on set and avoid a major distraction on air.
But on the larger, more long-term level, even if he gets off in his legal battle back in Chicago, Smollett may have COMPLETELY damaged his career with this alleged fake attack. To think that he went from TV mainstay, to media darling, to media pariah and effectively a member of some informal Hollywood blacklist in just a few weeks’ time… what a wild and crazy ride.
Related: Updates On Those Involved With Investigating Smollett’s Alleged Attack
Of course, America loves a comeback, so who’s to say he couldn’t return to TV at some point in the future and redeem himself?
We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Smollett’s first priority now, ahead even of saving his career, revolves around the legal battle in which he finds himself. Depending on how that ends, we may or may not expect much out of his career going forward.
But first, he needs to keep the focus on those 16 felony counts in the indictment…
[Image via WENN]
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