Taye Diggs is sticking up for his friend Jussie Smollett.
During an interview on Black Hollywood Live‘s “Inside The Black Actor’s Studio” podcast, the 48-year-old actor said that he wants the 37-year-old former Empire actor to be brought back to the hit Fox show.
“I have no idea what people are going through. And to be honest, it’s kinda none of my business,” Taye shared. “He is a good friend of mine. I love him. He’s, he’s only done right by me. So you know people go through things. It doesn’t change who he was and who he is to me. It doesn’t change, you know, the attention that we still need to pay to, you know, homophobic. Like, the people, people trip out, just because; whatever happened doesn’t mean that, that the issue that he stands for don’t still exist.”
Jussie was at the center of a major controversy earlier this year when he was allegedly attacked in a hate crime only to be arrested and charged for faking the crime before the case was eventually dropped.
Back in June, Empire showrunner Lee Daniels said that Jussie would not be returning for the upcoming final season of the show and that he is “beyond embarrassed” about the alleged hate crime hoax scandal.
“If I am being honest, the smart thing would be to bring him back and, and let it interweave it into the, into the show, you know?” Taye continued. “I feel like, people, I may get in trouble for saying this, but they’re so quick to just to leave, to leave these people. You know what I mean? So quick to, to fire them, so quick to kind of, you know, throw them away as opposed to, you know, taking their time and, maybe letting it, let it work toward, you know, the program or the job, or, you’d probably get to the bottom of it if he, if he stuck around.”
If you don’t remember, Taye made a guest appearance on in season three of Empire where he played Councilman Angelo DuBois for several episodes.
Taye concluded: “But I feel like people don’t, they don’t stand behind and support their actors as much as they should, you know? Fear. I think it’s fear.”
