Allegations against Smollett could be career killer
Crisis management pros are pessimistic that actor could bounce back
LOS ANGELES— Jussie Smollett has been enmeshed in weekly drama on the set of Empire, the Fox TV series that gave the actor a breakout role and the fame to advance his social activism.
Or at least he has been. Friday’s news that Smollett, who plays Jamal Lyon, will not appear on the final two episodes of this season of Empire leaves his future on the series in doubt.
Smollett, who is Black and gay, told police he was the victim of a hate crime committed by men who threw liquid in his face, yelled racist, anti-gay slurs and looped a noose around his neck. After a three-week investigation, Smollett was charged Wednesday with staging the attack with help from two brothers he knew and allegedly paid for their services.
Insiders and observers are stunned by what authorities allege was fakery intended in part to get Smollett publicity and a raise.
“This is incredible. No one does this,” said Garth Ancier, a veteran network executive and a co-founder of the Fox network. If more money was his goal, that’s what agents and negotiations are for, he said.
“It’s too bad that such a tal- ented guy threw all that away,” Ancier said, adding he didn’t see how he could be kept on Empire.
In a statement, Empire producers said Friday that while they care about Smollett deeply, “We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”
Smollett’s legal team released a statement Thursday calling Chicago police’s version of events “an organized law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system.”
Experts in the field of crisis management were pessimistic. The online mockery Smollett is taking is unlikely to stop, and it could hinder any attempt to reemerge, said Eric Dezenhall, CEO of the public relations firm Dezenhall Resources.
“The thing it’s really hard to come back from is ridicule,” Dezenhall said. “It can be easier to come back from something just bad. In our culture, the whiff of something dangerous has a certain street cred. But here we’re talking about a combination of malevolence and ridiculousness.”
Eden Gillott, president of Gillott Communications, offered a similar take.
“This could be a career killer. We’ve seen this many times,” said Gillott, citing instances ranging from Kevin Spacey’s firing from House of Cards for alleged sexual misconduct to Megyn Kelly’s Today exit after she defended blackface costumes.