Lee Daniels opened up about his relationship with Jussie Smollett five years after the actor was convicted of making false accusations about a racist crime against him.

During a recent interview with “The Breakfast Club,” the “Empire” creator revealed he is willing to cast the actor in a future project.

“I’d work with him again,” Daniels began. “I’d cast him in something. He was a son to me. And he also represented me. And he also represented the movement that I tried to start, which I didn't know I was starting. I was so busy, worried about Cookie's hat and the music that we were playing [on ‘Empire’]. This was before Insecure, and this was before ‘Black Panther.’ We started it.”

He continued, “I was so worried about getting everything right that I didn't know what was happening in the zeitgeist. That whole situation was complicated. I still don’t know what to believe. Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. People say he didn’t do it; he did do it. God bless him on his journey.”

In 2019, Smollett, who is a gay Black man, reported that two men attacked him on his way home from a sandwich shop one night. He claimed that the men said racist and homophobic slurs while also wrapping a rope around his neck and pouring bleach on him.

After an investigation, law enforcement later alleged that the 41-year-old paid two brothers $3,500 to stage a hate crime attack against him. They claimed this was a response to Smollett’s dissatisfaction with the salary he received from his five seasons with “Empire.”