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Jussie Smollett is stepping in front of the camera to share his perspective on the tumultuous scandal that followed his report of an alleged hate crime in 2019. The actor will appear in the upcoming Netflix documentary The Truth About Jussie Smollett? out Aug. 22. According to a statement from Gagan Rehill, per Hollywood Reporter, the film will “balance their competing narratives and to also use their compelling, colorful testimonies to thread the light and shade of the story through the film.”
Smollett will appear as one “key player” in the 90-minute release, which will also include commentary from journalists, police officials, lawyers, and investigators who closely followed the controversial case. The film will reportedly present new evidence and information in the series of events that began with a police report in 2019 and concluded with an overturned conviction in 2024.
In 2019, Smollett went to police in Chicago claiming that two men assaulted him outside his apartment, put a noose around his neck, and called him racial slurs. In 2021, Smollett was convicted on five charges of lying to the police and sentenced to 150 days in prison the following March. In November 2024, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a special prosecutor’s case against the actor shouldn’t have gone forward because of a previous no-prosecution agreement and overturned the conviction.
“This was not a prosecution based on facts, rather it was a vindictive persecution and such a proceeding has no place in our criminal justice system,” Smollett’s lawyer, Nene E. Euche, toldRolling Stone at the time.
“This story is a thrilling ride, and we were lucky enough to have access to the key players,” Rehill said. “But much more than that, I wanted this film to speak to the particular moment of rapid cultural change when this takes place in 2019; when, as a society, we were becoming more combative, more polarized, more divergent over our shared reality — when we began to lack a common singular Truth.”
The Truth About Jussie Smollett? will be produced by From Raw, who previously helmed The Tinder Swindler. Tom Sheahan and Tim Wardle will executive produce. Netflix describes the film in a synopsis as a “shocking true story of an allegedly fake story that some now say might just be a true story.” Detailing its overarching goal, the description reads, “This compelling documentary invites the audience to decide for themselves who is telling The Truth About Jussie Smollett?”
