He wasn’t ready to run a damn company," the star of Fox's hip-hop smash tells THR about Jamal's recent struggles to fill his father's shoes.For the entire first season of Empire, Jamal Lyon (Jussie Smollett) wanted nothing more than his father's love and acceptance. Now, two episodes into the hip-hop smash's sophomore season, that is one of the few things going right in Jamal's life. As Lucious' successor to head Empire, Jamal has distanced himself immensely from the rest of the Lyon family – most notably from his mother Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) – and he continues to struggle to find time for his burgeoning music career.
But how much of that will change now that Lucious (Terrence Howard) is free from jail and out on bail? And what does this mean for his and Jamal's personal and professional relationship? The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Smollett about that, the infamous double slap and more.
What was it like filming that slap in the season premiere?
We did it like six different times. [Co-creator Lee Daniels] said to me over the phone before we even started season two, "There’s a moment at the end between Cookie and Jamal that’s legendary."
I didn’t want it to be a stunt. [Taraji] said “Yeah, I’m not going to slap you hard,” and I said, “No, I want you to slap me as hard as you can." "Well not as hard as I can." "No, Taraji, as hard as you can." And then she said, "Look, I’m from DC, don’t play with me," and when she did it, she literally did it as hard as she could. And that was a very, very real moment. it’s heartbreaking to watch every time because it felt so real when we did it. After they said, "Cut," we went off to our separate corners, we didn’t speak. And then right after, we’re right back to being us again. I love working with her. It made for a really, really great scene. But my face was hella swollen afterwards, that’s for damn sure.
I would break down after that moment because he feels like he’s losing something, the most precious thing to him, which is his mother. The love between a mother and a son is something so special, let alone the type of relationship that Cookie and Jamal have had. She’s the only one that’s really ever been there for him and he’s the only one that’s really ever been there for her throughout all these years. He feels like there’s a shift where it wasn’t supposed to be team Cookie and Hakeem, and Andre. It was supposed to be Team Cookie and Jamal. When he feels that he’s betrayed, he acts out because and he’s feeling himself a little bit as head of the company. In a way, Cookie had to smack him, but the great thing about Cookie and Jamal is that, regardless of what they go through, they will always find their way back to each other. That’s just what they do.
It’s a pretty hard pill to swallow, but they’re going through a rough patch. This is a very different type of dynamic. This whole power struggle between the family, is not the norm. They're all changing, and they’re all becoming better and worse people. What we see is that this is a family. This is also a company. That’s why it’s called Empire, and it’s very complicated, but it makes for great television.
I don’t think that Jamal was entirely ready to be head of Empire. The fact of the matter is that if you look at season one, it started to become that Empire represented all the sons. It wasn’t about a position, it was a position in your father’s eyes, and that’s what Empire represents. So they weren’t fighting even for the company, they were fighting for their father’s favoritism and approval and love. He wasn’t ready to run a damn company. The fool did not know that he was not going to be able to make music. He thought, 'Oh, I’m running a music company. I’m going to create.' He didn’t realize what it was going to be. And now, they’re such a proud people – the Lyon family. It’s all those things combined, but he didn’t know that it was going to be that way. It’s changing him, and an artist or a creator that cannot create their art makes for a very, very, very bitter human being.hollywoodreporter
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