“The truth about Jussie Smollett?” Director in the future career of the actor

In the Netflix documentary “The Truth About Jussie Smollett?”, Police, lawyers, journalists, researchers and Smollett Rehash again the events of January 29, 2019 -the infamous day when the former “Empire” actor reported that he was a victim of a violent hatred. The world eventually started to believe that “the crime” was a hoax orchestrated by Smollett.

According to the Netflix logline, the 90 -minute Doc tells the “shocking true story of an alleged fake story that some say that now might just be a true story.” In reality, the film offers no answers. Instead, director Gagan Rehill combines judicial evidence and conflicting stories to tell the story of Smollett. The result is a documentary that does the unexpected by allowing viewers to decide for themselves who tells the truth.

“We have collected and collected the 360 ​​perspectives of the story,” says Rehill. “We have that and put them against each other.”

In 2019, Smollett claimed that after buying a sandwich from a Metro store in Chicago in the early hours of the morning, two white men swing racial expression to him, poured an unknown chemical substance on him and wrapped a rope around his neck. The incident was met for the first time with an outpouring of public support. But that all changed when the police of Chicago secured security images of the supposed perpetrators and the men identified as Nigerian American brothers who worked as extras on ‘Empire’. Proof that Smollett had orchestrated the attack and the brothers had paid $ 3,500, appeared later.

Smollett was initially charged for 16 counts of crime disorderly behavior, but the charges were withdrawn. A year later, Smollett was again indicated and after a controversial test in 2021 the actor was convicted of five crime counts of disorderly behavior. He was sentenced to a probationary period of 30 months, including 150 days in prison, plus fines of a total of more than $ 120,000. In 2024, the conviction was reversed on procedural grounds, as the Supreme Court of Illinois found that the re -execution was violating the correct process. In 2025, Smollett settled with the city of Chicago and he continues to deny that he has led the attack.

Variety Spoke with Rehill about “The Truth About Jussie Smollett?” Who now streams on Netflix.

The case and what actually happened, depending on who you speak, is quite ambiguous. Has that made a difficult documentary for maneuver?

Rehill: It was difficult to acknowledge that and to realize it early in the process. This (film) is not (over) the legal system. It is about a time in time. There are larger themes that these (doc) addresses to transfer that.

Was one of the relationship of those themes of society with the truth that seemed to take a turn in 2019?

That is exactly the lens that I wanted to look through. The people who are for Jussie are bound by a mistrust of the police. All this happened at a time when Black Lives Matter came up. We became more divided as a society. So the film speaks to a post-truth society in which we live.

Is it honest to say that everyone interviewed in the DOC, including law enforcement, Smollett and the Nigerian American brothers, who are reportedly hired to defeat him, are unreliable narrators?

I am really happy with this cast of characters in this film. I think it’s what makes it unique. They are all bigger than life. While we made the film, we gathered this cast and their dynamics. Their counterparts for each other became part of what was mandatory about the film. It was the key for me to coordinate all their perspectives together in a respectful way.

Was one of the topics paid to participate in this documentary?

So I know that Jussie was not paid. There are many people who were involved in the Pole of Access before I came. But what I understood and for me was the key was that Jussie was not paid.

The DOC is released at a time when Smollett makes trips to restore his career as an actor, a director and a recording artist. Do you see the movie as a stepping stone for him?

This is certainly not the purpose of this film. It is in no way a miscarriage film. It is more an opportunity for people to watch, watch and see what they believe. So no. It is certainly not the intention of the film or mine to rehabilitate his career in any way.