The Truth About Jussie Smollett? director clarifies intent behind Netflix documentary

The Truth About Jussie Smollett? has stirred plenty of conversations since dropping on Netflix, and naturally, people wondered if the documentary was created to soften the actor's image. Director Gagan Rehill has made it clear that this was never the purpose.

Speaking to Variety, Rehill explained:

"It's certainly no intention of the film or mine to help rehabilitate his career in any way."

Instead, the Netflix documentary aims to let the audience look at the events themselves and decide what truth they themselves would like to believe in.

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Why The Truth About Jussie Smollett? doesn’t hand out easy answers

The Truth About Jussie Smollett? jumps right into the controversial night of January 29, 2019, when Smollett had reported being attacked in Chicago. What came after was a storm of reports that were all but conflicting, a ton of courtroom drama, and, worst of all, an endless public debate.

Instead of nitpicking sides, the documentary vomits out all of these important puzzle-like pieces and places them side by side, all of the evidence, testimonies, media reactions, and, of course, police findings, and this is what leaves enough space for the audiences to come and draw their own conclusions.

Director Gagan Rehill told Variety:

"We collated and collected the 360 perspectives of the story. We got that and laid them against each other."

This approach makes the film less about letting out a neat answer and more about showing just how messy and divided the entire situation was.

Rather than working as an investigation that gives the audience a sense of closure, the documentary is more like a mirror that reflects society's confusion. It reminds the audience that not every high-end case comes to a close with clarity, especially when the truth itself has become something people can no longer collectively agree upon.

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The bigger picture: A story about truth and division

The Truth About Jussie Smollett? isn't just about one actor's scandal. Rehill has said the film looks at something bigger, like the ever-changing relationship between the truth and public perception in recent times.

He explained to Variety by saying:

"That's exactly the lens I wanted to look through. The people who are in favor of Jussie are tied to a distrust of the police. All of this was happening at a time when Black Lives Matter was emerging. We were becoming more divided as a society. So the film speaks to a post-truth society that we live in."

By setting Smollett's story within the cultural setting of the late 2010s, the film highlights how split up the conversations about race, policing, politics, and media shape public opinion.

A few supporters saw Smollett being a victim during a time of racial tension, whereas the critics saw the case as proof of nothing but manipulation.

In this way, The Truth About Jussie Smollett? ends up being less about whether Smollett is guilty or innocent and more about what his story lets out about a society caught between competing realities.

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The characters, the narratives, and what they reveal about The Truth About Jussie Smollett?

One of the reasons The Truth About Jussie Smollett? feels so interesting is because of its cast of voices. It doesn't just feature Jussie Smollett and the Osundairo brothers, who claimed he paid them to stage the attack.

It also includes journalists, police officers, investigators, and legal experts who all present different, often clashing viewpoints. Rehill explains to Variety:

"I'm really happy with this cast of characters in this film. I think it's what makes it unique. They are all larger than life."

Each person comes across like a character in a drama who adds tension to an already divisive case. No single voice is ever positioned as the absolute authority.

Instead, the play between these various perspectives is what gives the documentary its energy. Even when the accounts contradict one another, Rehill presents them in a way that respects the complexity of the situation at hand.

And importantly, he clarified that Jussie Smollett was not paid to take part in The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, emphasizing that the purpose was not to provide him with a platform for a career comeback.

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The Truth About Jussie Smollett? was never meant to be a redemption story to begin with. As director Gagan Rehill has stressed, it isn't about clearing Smollett's name or rebuilding his career once again.

Instead, the documentary asks the audience to sit with the chaos and the uncomfortable questions about truth in the society we know of today, and in doing so, it shifts the focus away from getting direct answers and points at the society fighting them.

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