Jussie Smollett on His "Empire" Character & Go-To Club Dance

We're having the best Twitter and Instagram discussion here. Great having you here.

Thank you for having me.

I'm not being obnoxious. I'm not on my phone. I want to pull up some of your tweets. You're being a little obnoxious and you're kinda being on your phone. A little bit. Yeah, but it's all about you because it's your Twitter that I'm stalking. Oh, come on, darling. People will write you things like such a great cast and you write back, you're so dope. And then like somebody wrote. Okay, wait a second now. That was Zoë Kravitz. Oh, okay. That was the offspring of the great Kravitz Bonet Dynasty. I almost wore my Lenny t-shirt today. We need to talk about this phenomenal success of the show. It's crazy.

Crazy. It's stupid.

It's 25-year highs for Fox, I think. And like, just breaks records and keeps escalating and escalating and escalating. Michael, why are you doing all of this? Because this is what you want, Jamal. Couldn't even talk to my face. I had to hear it on the radio. Nobody special. I said no special girl. Yeah, and how do you think that made me feel, huh? Listening to you say that in front of the whole world. Well, now you do have a special girl in your life. A daughter. Shooting the pilot. Did you know?

I knew that the energy around the the project was beautiful and it was great. But I keep on saying that some of the greatest television and films are only seen by the people that are in them. You never really know that something's going to resonate in that way, but I mean, how many times have I said that?

Well, let me flip it another way then. How do you think the show has brought a fresh take to TV?

It's film. It's it's a it's an hour-long film every single week. It's got that pizzazz of the old school musicals, but with the drama of the, you know, the soap operas, but with the realness of our society today.

I want to know about the seven auditions. Seven auditions to get this role and you said you sang and danced for your life.

Absolutely. I was gonna get this damn role. I was like, hell no, and if I don't get this role, it's gonna be because I just seriously was wrong for it, but I was going to do every single thing that I had to do.

Was this big because you're a singer, you're a songwriter. You must have seen this and gone like you must have been like salivating.

I was drooling. I was peeing on myself. God, why, God, it just gets better. As an artist, those types of roles don't come along every day. So, when you when you see something like that, you're just like, I was as I'm sure so many other people felt connected to the role and and felt like they were made for the role, but I really felt like I was made for the role.

Now, did you know at that time that this was based on, but your character was based on Lee Daniel's life?

I did not. I did know that the scene in the trash can, I knew very well that that had happened to him because I was a big fan of Lee Daniels already and I saw him on Charlie Rose and he talked about it. I didn't know how much was actually taken out of his own personal experiences. He's become one of my best friends. He's like a second dad. He really is.

I might ask you for a dancing lesson cuz there's one scene where you were dancing, you and your brother, and you were dancing. Is that your like when you go to a club, is that your club dance?

No, um, I don't know what my club dance is, but I do have club dances, but you know what I what my go-to is? The Tootsie Roll.

What's that?

Remember the Tootsie Roll? God, yes, we're going to do this. Remember the video for "Creep"? TLC?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Remember when T-Boz was like, "So I creep." Yeah, that's the dance. I'm talking about it's on. Come on, you can do it. Yeah, that's good enough. Baby, watch you're pretty. Oh, it's pretty. You're fancy me like, "Girl, can't you Grandm?"

You said that you're an autobi autobiographical songwriter and so your character is like that too. Is it just a natural thing to sort of share your life?

The actual music part of it is to me talking about my my life and my personal life and everything like that through song is much easier. And I feel like it's somehow it's it's not intrusive or invasive when I'm singing my words and I'm just like, "Here, here for the world to see." It's difficult sometimes when you're writing it and it is a thing of, "Do I really wanna be that open?" But then most times those times when you're when you ask yourself that, usually those are the best songs. There was a time when 'cause I'm such a blues fanatic, there was a time when I was literally recording country music. And I used to go to this place um called the Cowboy Palace and I would perform all the time with my country band. And

Did I hear a little country voice? What was the magic I saw in your eyes? Why say, "I love you," night after night? How could you kiss me again and again? I always thought you were thinking of me. It must have been him. Oh my god, I'm ready to cry. I'm crying. You got me crying. You did that on purpose. It's not fair.

But it's just I love country music. I love blues. I love lyrics and I love I love stories. So, so that's the fun part. That is one of the things that gets me off is like being like, "Here," that's a little piece of me. Yeah.

I couldn't think they couldn't have cast a better person on the show than you. I think you're fantastic.

Thank you so much.

Only thing that I'm missing is the mac and cheese that you never brought me.

Were we supposed to bring mac and cheese?

Craig. I heard you make a wicked mac and cheese.

Craig is gonna suffer for this.

Craig. See, I keep saying his name. He's mortified right now. I promise you. You're bringing mac and cheese. Let

No, you know what we do? We set up this we set up a special episode at my house. You come and I will cook for you at my house.

Sounds like a date. And the answer is yes. Done. Done. Done.