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'Hollywood privilege': Jussie Smollett trolled at BET Awards after leaving jail because it was 'too hard'

Fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure over Smollett making a red carpet comeback during the BET Awards 2022 after his fake hate crime scandal

American actor and singer Jussie Smollett, 40, has given some of his finest performances in television series like Fox's drama series ‘Empire’ where his portrayal of musician Jamal Lyon received applauds and rave reviews from fans. He started his career as a child actor in films like ‘The Mighty Ducks’ and Rob Reiner’s ‘North’. Smollett also won the hearts of the audience with stellar acting chops in iconic filmmaker Ridley Scott’s sci-fi film ‘Alien: Covenant’ and American legal-drama film ‘Marshall’.

Almost three years back in January 2019, Smollett claimed that he was a victim of a hate crime in Chicago and also went ahead to make several false police reports regarding the incident. Later, it was discovered that his allegations were fake and fabricated. For people who are still unaware, in December 2021, Smollett was found guilty of five law-breaking counts of felony. In March 2022, he was sentenced to 150 days in Cook County jail for filing a false police report after telling investigators that he was the victim of an alleged 2019 hate crime. After serving six days in prison, Smollett was released on bond from the county jail while his case is on appeal as of now.

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Smollett turned up on the red carpet of the 22nd annual BET Awards on Sunday night which officially marked his comeback to Hollywood just three months after he was released from prison.

Talking with ET’s Kevin Frazier about his excitement to make a comeback and about his directorial debut BET + original movie ‘B-Boy Blues’, Smollett said, “I never thought of myself as working my way back.” He also shared how the opportunity to get back on the sets and create something after his legal trouble has been really "wonderful".

Smollett also gave an insight into his plans of going behind the camera to helm the project and working with other actors as a director. He said, “This has always been the plan, to expand my empire, so to speak. To expand the level of what I want to do... to be able to usher in a new generation of artists and actors and these amazing talents.”

Starring Timothy Richardson, Ledisi, Brandee Evans, Heather B, Marquise Vilson, Jabari Redd, Broderick Hunter, and Thomas Mackie, 'B-Boy Blues' is the official film adaptation of author James Earl Hardy’s novel of the same name.

While Smollett's case is on an appeal, he decided to make his red carpet comeback and that did not sit well with the users on the internet. As soon as social media users caught a whiff of the same, they immediately started flooding Twitter with their reactions wherein the majority of them badly lashed out at the actor and slammed him brutally.

"#JussieSmollett needs to go back & sit down - his Lies still too fresh," said a fan. "That’s crazy how Jussie Smollett is out & about, showing his face like that situation never happened," a netizen wrote.

"Must Be Nice To See This F**ker Is Out And About Like Nothing Ever Happened," wrote a fan. "I hope people on stage ridicule him. I also want to see his reaction lol #JussieSmollett #BETAwards #BETAwards22 #JUSSIEGUILTY," added another user.

"Just my personal opinion but he should be left alone AFTER he serves the jail time he was sentenced to. Until that time he just exemplifies hollywood privilege. He was having a hard time in jail... now that's original. He did the crime now serve the time. #JussieSmollett," a user mentioned.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.