‘Empire’ star Jsie Smollett out as gay, still don’t want to talk about his personal life - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• 'EMPIRE' STAR JSIE SMOLLET NFIRMS HE'S GAY
• ‘EMPIRE’ ACTOR JSIE SMOLLETT REVEALS HE’S GAY ON ‘ELLEN’: ‘THERE IS NO CLOSET’
• ‘EMPIRE’ REP: LUC LOS THE EMPIRE, BUT JAMAL’S STILL GAY
• ‘EMPIRE’ STAR JSIE SMOLLETT OUT AS GAY, STILL DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT HIS PERSONAL LIFE

'EMPIRE' STAR JSIE SMOLLET NFIRMS HE'S GAY

Actor and sger Jsie Smollett is one of the breakout stars of Fox's h drama Empire, and while much of the buzz surroundg him has foced on his talents, there's also been plenty said about his the show, he plays Jamal Lyon, a gay sger and the middle son of Luc (Terrence Howard) and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) battlg his father's real life, Smollett's sexualy has been a topic of nversatn, and now he's settg the rerd an terview wh Ellen DeGener nducted backstage at Ellen, he nfirmed that he is gay and explaed why he's never felt the need to discs his personal life.

‘EMPIRE’ ACTOR JSIE SMOLLETT REVEALS HE’S GAY ON ‘ELLEN’: ‘THERE IS NO CLOSET’

"Until his nversatn wh DeGener, Smollett nsistently refed to discs his sexualy terviews, tellg Sway on his rad show a few weeks ago that fans shouldn't assume that he's gay. News flash: Empire's Jamal (Jsie Smollett) is gay.

But Empire never lets viewers fet that Jamal is gay, bee Jamal has que the active romantic Luc' Amnia Is Jt What the Show NeedJamal, and his thrivg sex life, is propaganda.

Empire -creator Lee Daniels has talked at length about Jamal beg a way to appease what he lled homophobic black dienc, and worked. Jamal tried to nvce Ryan to hi his sexualy om Luc too, leadg to a nversatn about growg up gay wh an Ain-Amerin father and livg the tth, yada yada yadda. On the one hand, the myth of the sneaky guy sleepg wh men but nyg to everyone backs the stctive msage that gay/bisexual people are untstworthy.

‘EMPIRE’ REP: LUC LOS THE EMPIRE, BUT JAMAL’S STILL GAY

Rather than jt flailg agast his father's homophobia and retreatg to the fort of his keyboard, Jamal summoned his anger to a missn statement: He pledged to take over his father's pany. First, and I fear we've unrsold this our last two reps, how spectacular is that a work TV show picts not only a gay man of lor, but a gay man of lor the hetero-domated world of hip-hop?

Lee Daniels and his team may have unrled Luc's homophobia too hard so far, havg him nsistently refer to Jamal as female and sist homosexualy is a choice egregly bluntly, but 's probably (and sadly) realistic—and mak Jamal's assertn that he is a gay man, emphasis on both of those scriptors, all the more valuable.I also really enjoyed the terplay between Cookie and Anika this episo!

‘EMPIRE’ STAR JSIE SMOLLETT OUT AS GAY, STILL DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT HIS PERSONAL LIFE

One of Empire’s most proment storyl, and most atttg to s ‘pave the way’ stat, revolv around Jamal Lyon — played by openly gay Jsie Smollett. As a young boy he steps to a room wearg heels and a headsrf to naively show off to his parents; Luc rponds homophobic slurs and stuffs his son a trash n while a distrsed Cookie tri to tervene.

Oftentim, a lot of the people are homophobic, I feel. In the hip hop muny pecially, save for succs stori like Frank Ocean’s, homosexualy isn’t known to sell hip hop rerds.

Here’s to a black gay man playg a lead on FOX’s most-watched show years. "The 31-year-old "Empire" star me out on "The Ellen DeGener Show" after his character om the h Fox seri revealed he's gay.