Empire actor Jussie Smollett is no longer under consideration for a role in the upcoming Broadway revival of Richard Greenberg's 2003 play Take Me Out, about a closeted baseball player.
It's unclear whether the controversy over Smollett's staged hate crime had anything to do with it. The UK's Daily Mail reported that producers were ready to announce the casting of Smollett and Zachary Quinto but plans changed following the late January incident.
Deadline reports: “A source close to the production tells Deadline that Smollett did indeed read for the lead role in January but that no casting decisions had, or have, been made. While Smollett is no longer in the picture, his casting apparently never proceeded to anything firm before the January 29 incident in Chicago that police say was a hate crime hoax perpetrated by Smollett for career advancement and attention.”
