Tonight at 8p on Fox, it’s time for Empire‘s explosive two-hour season finale and you don’t want to miss a single second. Yesterday, I was on a conference call with Yazz, who plays Hakeem, and Jussie Smollett, who plays Jamal, and the two of them talked about the final two hours of the first season and the time leading up that that. They had a lot to say, and what they said will give you a whole new appreciation for the actors.
What we can expect from the season finale: Yazz: Nobody’s perfect and you’ll get that on the season finale. Everybody is an enemy. Everybody is a villain. Nobody is safe in Empire.
Even more about what to expect from the season finale: Yazz: It’s very sexual. It’s about a rivalry; to really get back at somebody I can’t tell you but, throughout the season, Hakeem, he’s very explosive and he just does a lot. He does a lot. He tries to prove himself, so you’ll get to see coming up. It’s very intense. Jussie: He kind of has those moments often, but this season finale you’ll kind of see a moment between Lucious and Jamal where they come together somehow through song and I feel like that’s the moment that a lot of us have been waiting for all season long and I shot it and it was one of my most favorite scenes I’ve done in the entire series. I feel like that’s a major turn-up moment.
How have people reacted towards them about the show: Yazz: Yea, I mean, the fans are amazing. Me and Juss, when we were in Chicago and everything started building up, we used to go to the gym and stuff, like regular gym, and work out and people would go bananas. We can’t go grocery shopping no more. It’s just pandemonium, but it’s a dream come true. We’re working with the greatest, Oscar-nominated, actors and directors, so it’s great. I’m in a great place. Jussie’s in a great place and we’re blessed. Jussie: For me, it’s been a really wonderful experience thus far. Everybody has been really supportive and loving. I just get the most beautiful letters from kids, both homosexual children and heterosexual children, telling me that somehow they relate to Jamal in so many ways and I feel like that’s the – as an artist, we don’t always get these types of roles to come along, that really say something about what you care about, but when they do, you jump at the chance. I feel like that’s what we all did. I feel like we all, in our own individual ways, fought so hard for these roles because of what it meant and what it said. It’s so entertaining and it’s so glamorous and fantastic, but it also is saying something about where our society is today and that means so much. When I get those letters, I’m a crying fool anyway, because I’m a Cancer, but it’s just really, really emotional and I love it. It’s been wonderful.
Why the toughest scene for Jussie this season was one he was not in: Jussie: For me, what was the toughest scene? Honestly, you know what? Odd enough, the toughest scene for me was a scene that I was not in. It was – I was on set. Genis Wooten, who plays baby Jamal, is my godson, so I was there on set with his mom, Jennia, and with Lee when they shot the trash can scene.
Because I just wanted to make sure that he was okay and he’s so unaffected by it all. He understands all of it, but he’s so unaffected. But to be there, in that moment, and see all of us, adults, we were so affected by it that this baby was so unaffected by it. Just to watch Lee go through it, and knowing that that really happened to him in real life, that was probably the toughest scene that we shot, for me. But, again, that was also a scene that I wasn’t even in, but I feel like it’s because of me seeing that scene that’s why I was able to understand the scene where I perform “Good Enough.â€
Who do Yazz and Jussie want to guest star next season: Jussie: For me, it’s Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson and Brandy. I really want them just because I want to sing with them. Yazz: Alright. For me it’s Madonna, Queen Latifah, and Rihanna.
Just another reason to love Yazz: Yazz: From my perspective. You know, it’s 2015. Like if you haven’t – if you’re that insecure about yourself that you can’t love somebody for who they are, then you just need to just stay in the house and lock the door. I’m that type of person that doesn’t care who you are. I love everybody and I feel like that’s how the world should be.
