{"id":46543,"date":"2016-04-10T23:50:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T23:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46543"},"modified":"2016-04-10T23:50:06","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T23:50:06","slug":"jussie-smollett-talks-about-growing-up-in-a-biracial-home-and-pranking-his-empire-costars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46543","title":{"rendered":"Jussie Smollett Talks About Growing Up in a Biracial Home and Pranking His \u2018Empire\u2019 Costars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jussie Smollett Talks About Growing Up in a Biracial Home and Pranking His \u2018Empire\u2019 Costars<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

ABC News<\/a>
\n2016-04-08<\/p>\n

Angela Williams<\/a><\/strong>, Entertainment TV Producer<\/p>\n

There is lots of great music, loads of drama and plenty of surprises packed into each episode of Fox\u2019s<\/a> “Empire<\/a>.” And much of it is centered around break-out star Jussie Smollett<\/a> who plays singer\/musician Jamal Lyon<\/a>, son of fictitious music moguls Cookie<\/a> and Luscious Lyon<\/a> (played by Taraji P. Henson<\/a> and Terrance Howard<\/a>). It\u2019s the role that has thrust Smollett into the spotlight – something he\u2019s still wrapping his head around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting in a restaurant yesterday and I was just in a lunch meeting and then I look and there\u2019s paparazzi out there taking pictures. And I\u2019m like, ‘That\u2019s so weird. It\u2019s not normal,’\u201d Smollett told ABC News. \u201cAt first you\u2019re looking around, and you\u2019re like, ‘Is One Direction here? Where\u2019s Michael B. Jordan<\/a>?’ And then you realize that they\u2019re there for you. And I\u2019m like, \u2018There\u2019s gotta be something better to do than follow me around,\u2019\u201d joked Smollett.<\/p>\n

Smollett’s character is struggling to gain his father\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd because he\u2019s gay, Luscious, played by the great Terrance Howard, is not very supportive,\u201d said Smollett. \u201cHe\u2019s not happy. He\u2019s not going on any marches with his son, let\u2019s just say that. He ain\u2019t gone be there.”<\/p>\n

A gay, black man living in the world of hip-hop is a role rarely seen on prime-time television. But Smollett said he feels no added pressure on how he portrays the character…<\/p>\n

…Smollett\u2019s confidence likely stems from his upbringing. He grew up in a tight-knit family with a diverse background — his mother is African American and his father is Russian-Polish — and he’s one of six siblings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a very close family, a functioning family, instead of dysfunctional – unlike the Lyons,\u201d Smollett said. \u201cNo one\u2019s ever loved me in spite of who I am. They\u2019ve always loved me because of who I am.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jussie Smollett Talks About Growing Up in a Biracial Home and Pranking His \u2018Empire\u2019 Costars ABC News 2016-04-08 Angela Williams, Entertainment TV Producer There is lots of great music, loads of drama and plenty of surprises packed into each episode of Fox\u2019s “Empire.” And much of it is centered around break-out star Jussie Smollett who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,13743,8,20],"tags":[11471,23482,23483,23480,23481],"class_list":["post-46543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-abc-news","tag-angela-williams","tag-empire","tag-jussie-langston-mikha-smollett","tag-jussie-smollett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46544,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46543\/revisions\/46544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}