To promote tonight’s two-hour Empire season finale, actors Jussie Smollett (who plays Jamal) and Bryshere Y. Gray (also known as “Yazz The Greatest,” who plays Hakeem) participated in a press call coordinated by FOX. They spoke about what we have to look forward to — and more importantly, how it will affect the brothers’ relationship.
“As you’ve seen throughout the season, the brothers, they’re clashing,” Yazz explained. “There is a lot of success going on. They’re making a lot of money and it’s about if they’re going to stick together through the new adventures that are going on in their lives. The season finale is where you get to see that. It’s going to be crazy,” he promised.
“And as far as the relationship and the chemistry between both Hakeem and Jamal and, obviously, essentially, myself and Yazz, the thing about Hakeem and Jamal is that they compete and there are other people that really have their hands in the pot of their brotherhood, but at the same time they always find themselves back to each other. They always find their way back to each other somehow,” Smollett added. “I think that’s the beautiful thing about them is that families fight; families have issues. Not exactly as many issues as the Lyons family, but, families fight and they have issues and then they come back together at the end of the day and they’re a family. I think that it speaks volumes about brotherhood, the fact that Hakeem is so supportive of Jamal. Jamal is so supportive of Hakeem, but then it leads into our friendship and our brotherhood outside of the work,” he explained.
Sometimes the actors’ own feelings move in to their performances “When Yazz was performing ‘Nothing but a Number,’ my character was excited, but my character was excited because I was genuinely excited because that was the first time I heard the song and I loved it and he was killing it. There’s that brotherhood and camaraderie that we share. I think that’s what you see,” Jussie enthused.
And how excited are they for the finale? “I’m excited,” Jussie said. “I’m excited because there’s so much more to come. The dope thing about Season 1 is that there are still questions to be answered in Season 2. You know what I’m saying? I feel like Season 1 was the set up and then Season 2 will be, okay, let’s go back and let’s clean up all of the Lyons’ stuff, if you will. I’m very happy. I’m very excited where Jamal, where his journey has taken him, from beginning to now, and where it’s going to end up going. I’m very excited,” he continued.
Yazz added that they’re also excited about the Andre storyline for Trai Byers. “Where he goes, he gets better and better. I feel like his story is real important and it grows and people can learn from his experiences,” he said.
Empire is a show where every character – even fan favorite Cookie Lyon – isn’t perfect, and those themes will continue in tonight’s season closer. “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,” Yazz said.
The Empire season finale airs tonight (March 18) at 8PM on FOX, and they’ve released MORE promotional images in advance of it! You can find those below:
EMPIRE: Cookie (Taraji P. Henson, L) is cooking up a plan of her own in the special two-hour âDie But Once/Who I Amâ Season Finale episode of EMPIRE airing Wednesday, March 18 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: Chuck Hodes/FOX
