Jussie Smollett Refused to Let His 'Empire' Character Date a White Boy

In an interview with The Clay Cane Show on SiriusXM, Jussie Smollett said "fuck no!" to the idea of his Empire character having a white boyfriend. 

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The 35-year-old plays music mogul Jamal Lyon on the show and says that when the network wanted his character to have a white boyfriend, he flat out refused. 

“There was talk about Jamal having a white boyfriend and I said, 'Fuck no!'" said Smollett. "We  have a such a beautiful opportunity to show two black men in a relationship together, in a healthy relationship."

He went on, "it was important and that wasn’t anything against white men. It was just a thing of…this is what I wished I had seen as a kid. If I had seen certain things as an adolescent, I would have had a much different understanding of who I am in an earlier space. I do think that is important to show.”

When the show first premiered in 2015, Empire received praise for its groundbreaking coming out story arc and Jamal Lyon is often cited as one of the most important LGBTQ characters on television. 

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