20th Century Fox Television has decided to remove actor Jussie Smollett from the final two episodes of the latest season of the “Empire.” the company announced Friday.
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us,” the executive producers of “Empire” said in a joint statement Friday.
“Jussie has been an important member of our ‘Empire’ family for the past five years and we care about him deeply. While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out,” they said. “We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”
The actor was charged Thursday on the suspicion of filing a false police report claiming to have been the victim of a hate crime.
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