After starring in ‘Empire’ and creating his own films ‘B-Boy Blues’ and ‘The Lost Holiday,’ Jussie Smollett sits down to share how ‘Empire’ contributed to his growth, what it was like to create ‘The Lost Holiday,’ and his experiences facing public scrutiny.
Billboard magazine is pleased to welcome Jussie Smollett. Good to see you, sir.
Thank you for having me. Nice to see you too.
Good, good. Mr. Multi-Hyphenate, between singing, acting, directing, songwriting, producing, and probably more I don’t even know about, but I wanted to ask you about how singing and acting work creatively together for you. Why is that such a thing for you?
I’ve been so blessed and a little lucky, you know, to be able to do certain projects that just so happened to have a musical component, particularly obviously with ‘Empire,’ that was just the perfect kind of marriage of so many of my loves. Music has always been the driving force behind everything I do, even when making movies, when creating, now that I’m directing and writing and producing and things like that. It’s still, music is the thing that I listen to when I’m writing. Music is the thing that I’m listening to as I’m creating the storyboards of how the scenes are gonna look. And then music is absolutely what guides the edit. So music is just, you know, it’s where I sit.
When you were cast and filming that first season, did you think it was going to do what it did?
I didn’t think about it, because I was just so happy to have a job, and I was so happy to be doing what I love, and, you know, working with great people. And I really didn’t think about that. I just trusted the process.
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