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\nJussie Smollett Debuts New Feature, Denzel Washington Hints at Break From Acting at American Black Film Festival https:\/\/t.co\/ziYeS9MzFx<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jussie Smollett declared he was weary of trying to explain away his past troubles<\/b> during the just-wrapped American Black Film Festival.<\/p>\n
Smollett expressed his gratitude for having “the love and support of my queer Black community.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a great deal to have the love and support of my queer Black community and equally to have the love and support of the Black community as a whole,\u201d<\/b> Smollett, joined by his\u00a0The Lost Holliday\u00a0co-star Jabari Redd (The Chi), told The Hollywood Reporter after the brunch.<\/p>\n
The American Black Film Festival, held in Miami Beach\u2019s South Beach, served as a launching pad for ABFF\u2019s Queer Lens Brunch with GLAAD, featuring Smollett on a panel promoting his second feature,\u00a0The Lost Holliday, an official festival selection that he co-wrote, produced and directed. It stars Smollett as a man whose husband is killed just as the couple was adopting their daughter; he must also contend with the mother-in-law he never met, played by Vivica A. Fox.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe former\u00a0Empire\u00a0star, who is still appealing a jail sentence after being convicted of five felonies for staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself,<\/b> found a reprieve from his ongoing legal battles at the event. Instead, producer and director Sidra Smith, who moderated the panel, referenced his \u201cperseverance\u201d and mental health, to which he responded, in part: \u201cSometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and let everybody think that you\u2019re crazy, that you\u2019re shady, that you\u2019re a fraud, whatever they\u2019re going to think. And then they\u2019ll figure it out. They\u2019ll figure it out because I can\u2019t sit here forever trying to explain.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
He was not silent on Black queer representation, however. \u201cThere are so many other things on the opposite side that are intentionally trying to devalue us so we must be intentional with our Blackness; we must be intentional with our queerness; we must be intentional with our Black queerness,\u201d<\/b> he said, explaining his fervent activism.<\/p>\n