Jussie Smollett’s past legal issues mentally prepared him to take on special 4 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

“I certainly would think that I have, over the last years … been forced to become mentally stronger, in a way,” Smollett, 43, exclusively tells Us Weekly ahead of the Special Forces season 4 premiere on Thursday, September 25.

Smollett adds that he became stronger in a sense that he can “not be as affected” as he once was by the public’s opinion of him.

Smollett, who got his start as a child star in The Mighty Ducks and later rose to fame with his role as Jamal Lyon in Empire on Fox, made headlines in 2019 when he claimed he was the victim of a hate crime. He received support from fans and loved ones before authorities accused him of staging his own assault.

Police arrested two possible suspects, Abimbola “Bola” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, but they were released without charges after they claimed Smollett hired them to allegedly stage the assault. Smollett was then charged with felony disorderly conduct for making a false police report. Prosecutors dropped the charges in March 2019, but by that time, Smollett was already written out of Empire.

Special prosecutor Dan Webb indicted Smollett again in 2020, accusing the actor of knowing that there was no crime when he reported his alleged assault to the police.

Smollett, who has maintained his innocence throughout his legal drama, was found guilty of five felony counts of disorderly conduct in 2021. He was sentenced to jail in March 2022 and released six days later. The sentence was upheld on appeal in 2023, but the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the conviction in 2024, stating that Smollett had fulfilled his 2019 plea agreement.

Smollett tells Us that his past was brought up on Special Forces, going on to share how he felt about it.

“I didn’t know what to expect. But listen, let’s keep it 100, right?” he explains. “Like, I knew going into Special Forces, that things were going to be brought up, that the past and painful, traumatic experiences would be brought up, not just from the obvious of 2019 but, you know, childhood things.”

More than a dozen new recruits are trying their hand at Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 4. Season 4 of the series returns to Fox on September 25, featuring reality TV alums including The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice and her daughter Gia Giudice, The Valley’s Brittany Cartwright and Sister Wives’ Kody […]

He continues, “And my father, growing up, being gay, all of those things, they really dive in. I think it’s like a three-hour pre-interview. They really dive into your personal [life] and that’s not always comfortable, but I think that the whole mission of this is to make you so uncomfortable that you face yourself and you face certain challenges in ways that maybe you never would have before, right?”

Smollett concludes, “Yeah, so I wasn’t so afraid of them bringing it up. I kind of was prepared. I just didn’t know in which way things would be brought up. But again, these people were hard and they were rough and they were harsh, but they were also oddly loving. They convinced you they’re loving, you know they were, you understand that it’s for the mission, and you understand that people are actually doing this in real time and in real life. So you know, we’re still protected in some ways.”