Naomi & Jussie
THE WORLD’S MOST ICONIC SUPERMODEL IS BEST MATES WITH AMERICA’S MOST PROMINENT GAY ACTOR. OBVIOUSLY. SO, WHEN WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOOT EMPIRE AND ALIEN: COVENANT STAR JUSSIE SMOLLETT EXCLUSIVELY FOR OUR COVER, NAOMI CAMPBELL SIMPLY INSISTED ON SWINGING BY
WORDS: PAUL FLYNN
WHEN NAOMI MET JUSSIE
Naomi Campbell & Jussie Smollett PHOTOGRAPHED EXCLUSIVELY IN NEW YORK FOR ATTITUDE BY Victoria Will
Jussie wears throughout: blazer by DSquared2, t-shirt by David Gandy for Autograph, jeans by BLK DNM Naomi Campbell & Jussie Smollett PHOTOGRAPHED EXCLUSIVELY IN NEW YORK FOR ATTITUDE BY Victoria Will
PHOTOGRAPHY: VICTORIA WILL
FASHION: JOSEPH KOCHARIAN
Jussie wears blazer and trousers, both by DSquared2, t-shirt by David Gandy for Autograph, shoes by Jimmy Choo
EMPIRE BUILDER
JUSSIE SMOLLETT TELLS ATTITUDE ABOUT BEING PALS WITH NAOMI CAMPBELL, HIS LOVE FOR MADONNA, THE DISDAIN HE FEELS FOR DONALD TRUMP, AND BEING A GAY MAN PLAYING A MAJOR GAY ROLE
FASHION:: JOSEPH KOCHARIAN
PHOTOGRAPHY: VICTORIA WILL
During its epic first season, there were many signs that the TV smash Empire was a defining work of its era. Perhaps the most conclusive evidence arrived when the show’s soundtrack beat Madonna’s Rebel Heart to top spot in the US Billboard album chart. As the show’s LGBT+ emblem — a prominent gay actor playing its most compelling gay character — Jussie Smollett didn’t feel any personal responsibility for short-circuiting the Queen of Pop’s hopes.
“I never thought about the irony of that,” says Smollett as we meet in the lush New York EDITION hotel, ahead of his Attitude shoot with Naomi Campbell. “But if Madonna is going to be number two to anybody, I’m sure she’s OK being number two to a gay man.”
Currently Chicago-based while filming the third series of Empire, Jussie, 33, says: “I love her. What we have to admit is that Madonna — our generation’s Marlene Dietrich — was so fucking ballsy. Right from the get-go she did not give a fuck. She had gay motherfuckers all up in her videos. She had a black Jesus and she did not give a shit. She did not care. She pushed the envelope and she didn’t do that just to be cute. She pushed the envelope because she believed in something. She stood for something.”
Empire tells the story of the comic, camp, cutthroat and ultra-glamorous machinations of a fictional American hip-hop music dynasty, in the mould of Russell Simmons’ Def Jam and Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment.
Empire Records has been built by Lucious Lyon, a hotheaded patriarch extracted from the DNA of Quincy Jones and King Lear, and his ex-wife Cookie, a sharp-tongued recalibration of Alexis Colby by way of Lil’ Kim. When Lucious is diagnosed with a fatal illness — during the pilot episode — he must decide which of his three children should be heir to the family business.
Smollett plays gay middle son, Jamal. As a child, Lucious attempts to throw him in the trash. As an adult, he doesn’t treat him much better. In person, Smollett is delightfully more ferocious than his ground-breaking fictional creation, if just as much a hero of his times.
Jamal Lyon is part of a long-standing thread of American culture that has nurtured non-binary representations of BAME men, dating back to Little Richard and the birth of rock and roll. The sexuality and gender spectrum Jamal is sketched on is indebted to a host of amazing US performers from Sylvester through to Luther Vandross, taking in Prince, Leroy from Fame, Rick James, John Legend and Frank Ocean.
“This is American culture,” Smollett says. “The fact of the matter is, there was Little Richard and Sylvester but there was also Rock Hudson. This idea of homophobia, this idea of hiding, of not being able to truly be who you really are, well I hate to tell my nation, but we are American culture.”