Actor Jussie Smollett will sit down for an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America tomorrow.
It will be his first time talking to a journalist directly about being the victim of a possible hate crime in Chicago last week. Smollett was hospitalized and treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after the attack.
TMZ originally reported the attack happened when Smollett, was leaving a Subway and someone yelled, “Aren’t you that f***ot Empire n*****?” The 2 men — both white and wearing ski masks — viciously attacked Jussie as he fought back, but they beat him badly and fractured a rib. They put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him and as they left they yelled, “This is MAGA country.”
Smollett spoke about the attack on him for the first time at a performance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
Frank Gatson, the man who was with Smollett the night of the attack, spoke out last week in an interview with Extra.
Said Gatson: “I was there with Jussie. I’m the one who called 911, I am the one who took him to the hospital, and it was so scary, man, that was a scary night — my stomach was numb. I’m just glad I was the old man at his apartment when he got there, I was responsible. I said, ‘Let’s call the cops, let’s go to the hospital.’ Shout out to Chicago police, especially the sergeant that came and got things together and made us feel comfortable…Jussie is a very strong guy.”
Smollett turned over phone records to the Chicago Police on Monday in relation to the alleged. But, according to the police, the records are insufficient.
The Chicago Tribune reports: “Investigators had sought Smollett’s phone records since shortly after he reported the attack Jan. 29 in the 300 block of East North Water Street. But police described Smollett’s phone records as a heavily redacted document file and his manager’s records as a screenshot of phone calls that provide limited information to investigators. Chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said police were “appreciative” of Smollett’s cooperation in providing the records but said detectives will likely need additional data from Smollett to crack the case.”
The comments of the CPD were interpreted as them casting doubt on Smollett’s claim.
CNN’s Don Lemon, a friend of Smollett’s told Jada Pinkett Smith on her show Red Table Talk, that he checks in with the Empire actor frequently: “Lemon said that he knew everyone would be picking Smollett’s story apart and that the details are not really his concern. Instead, he said, he was interested in Smollett’s “well-being.” He texts him daily to check in, because he believes he can relate very well to his situation, as a gay, black man in the spotlight. “Sometimes he responds, sometimes he doesn’t,” he said of Smollett, adding that he seems to appreciate the concern.”
Roberts who is also Black and gay is ideally suited to navigate the waters of an interview that could be potentially disturbing and contain more revelations as the investigation continues.
