How Jussie Smollett’s five gestures tore apart the Empire star’s elaborate hate crime hoax, body language experts say

THESE are the five gestures Empire star Jussie Smollett revealed that ripped up his elaborate hate crime scam, body language experts say.

They claim to have solid evidence that the disgraced Hollywood actor lied through his teeth on multiple occasions.

8th

8th

They streamed through a plethora of interviews with Falling Star, pinpointing the moments when he lied to the camera.

The 40-year-old celebrity made headlines in 2019 when he claimed two masked men hit him and put a noose around his head before shouting “This is MAGA country” near his Chicago.

The alleged attack publicized Smollett as a victim of white supremacy hatred in Donald Trump’s America.

But as police began investigating the allegations, they soon discovered that the actor had paid two associates to stage the attack to help him further his career.

Smollett was eventually accused of lying to the police but struck a plea deal with prosecutors that set him free.

Months later, cops reopened the case and provided evidence that led to the Mighty Ducks actor being convicted of lying to police and disorderly conduct.

Now, a world-class team of behavioral, linguistics and psychology experts are revealing the telltale signs that Smollett – who has been behind bars for 150 days – is a liar in a new Discovery+ documentary titled Jussie Smollett: A Faking It Special.

SECURE WITH THE SLING

Captured on camera, Smollett’s behavior was suspicious from the start.

In police bodycam footage shot immediately after the apparent attack – with a noose around his neck still visible – Smollett plays the role of the victim.

But Smollett’s speech gave tiny hints of his deception, Professor Archer points out.

“The invitation to accept it [the noose] Off is from the cop and Jussie Smollett’s response is, ‘Yes, I do,'” she explains.

“That’s a long time to keep going what will be extremely offensive to anyone, let alone someone of Jussie Smollett’s ethnicity.”

For forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes, Smollett’s demeanor is oddly relaxed for someone who has just been assaulted.

“He seems oddly comfortable with this sling,” she says.

“I can’t think of anything that would hit a black man more repulsively than that rope around his neck, of course you’d just want to take that off you.”

TONE OF SPEECH

Body language expert Dr. Cliff Lansley said Smollett made four alarming gestures within three seconds during an Instagram interview that strongly suggested he was trying to deceive his audience.

The Alien: Covenant star told US author Marc Lamont Hill that he “never would have done that,” referring to faking the attack during the Instagram live chat.

But dr Lansley said those three seconds of footage gave Smollett away.

“There’s a certain severity with his brows down. He’s not angry here. He’s trying to make a strong point, but while he’s trying to make that strong point, what counteracts that is his body language,” he said.

The actors make haunting statements, urging viewers to believe that such an act of forgery lay upon him.

“I wouldn’t do anything like that … I’m a black man, same-sex loving, proud – to a fault – man who leads with his blackness. The last thing I want to do is be portrayed as a victim”.

This is consistent with other footage from Smollett describing what happened that night.

Looking back at the recording, linguistics professor Dawn Archer said, “We have a one minute and fifty-six second answer, and in that we get five ‘and then’ and five ‘like this’. So he also uses and as a chronological sequencer 12 times.

“Research indicates that misleading accounts tend to be more chronological, while truthful accounts vary somewhat more in time.”

shrug

dr Lansley also points to Smollett’s body language as another telltale sign that the actor was lying.

“If you look at his shoulders, here we have a double-sided shrug. So the shoulders are probably lifting less than an inch,” he said.

“In full, a shrug means, ‘I have no faith in what I’m about to say.’

“And when we see a partial gesture — that’s small movements of one or both shoulders — that contradicts the affirmative claim he’s trying to make here.

“He may raise his voice, but we can see underneath that he’s betraying the fact that he doesn’t have confidence in saying he wouldn’t do something like that.”

8th

8th

THE HEAD BEAT

dr Lansley said while Smollett was begging his fans to believe him, he made a grave mistake.

“If you look around here, you also have a little micro shake of the head ‘No,'” said the body language expert.

“The camera moves a little, but when you isolate that camera and control that, the tip of the nose moves left and right at that point.

“You can see that by looking at his right ear, which goes away and comes back, and the camera doesn’t move sideways.

“So, shaking your head ‘No’, shrugging your shoulders, and trying to use a strong tone to persuade us are a cluster of three indicators that make this claim highly suspicious.”

This follows a similar observation made by Dr. Lansley made Smollett’s statement denying any wrongdoing, in which he claimed “I would not be my mother’s son if I were capable of a drop of what I am accused of”.

dr Lansley highlights features in Smollett’s movements that repeatedly catch him in a lie.

“We have this big head shake early on when he says, ‘I wouldn’t be my mother’s son.’ So the headshake lengthens after the statement and it’s pretty big, left to right as you’ll see,” he said.

“And that’s what people do when they’re trying to convince you.”

In addition to the head shake, tiny movements on Smollett’s lips also indicate deception.

“If we look at the end of the statement, we also see a lip presser. Now we see lip pressing as an alternative to putting your finger on your lips; it’s a gesture of self-reassurance,” he explained.

“So why does he want to control the words he uses? Because that’s a crucial statement he’s making and he’s careful not to say too much.”

And the words Smollett uses, the doctor adds, do nothing but underscore this deception.

“So we hear conditional words, ‘I wouldn’t do that’ — I did it, but what, I wouldn’t do it again? The language is easy,” he said.

“So he’s deluding himself, he’s skirting the issue instead of saying, ‘I didn’t do that.’ You protest too much. You’re trying too hard.”

8th

8th

8th

DISASSOCIATION

Professor Archer said another sign Smollett was trying to cover his tracks was distancing.

“He doesn’t want to distance himself from being the victim,” she explained as she rereads the Instagram Live interview.

“What he seems to be doing here is some sort of impression management that could work both ways.

“He hates the word victim because he doesn’t want to be associated with it because he’s already told us he’s a proud man.

“But it also works the other way around. He subconsciously distances himself from being the victim because he wasn’t.”

Professor Archer points out that this isn’t the first time Smollett has done this.

In an interview with ABC News two weeks after the alleged attack, Smollett gave a detailed account explaining why he had not immediately reported the incident to police.

Commenting on that clip, the professor said: “The other thing that gets interesting during this report is that at the point where we start talking about the actual attack, we omit pronouns.

“That’s where he actually talks about the physical attack.

“He doesn’t tell us anything about the attacker, it says ‘… hits me’, not ‘the attacker hits me’ or ‘he hits me’. It kind of hides him, doesn’t it? He’s hidden in all of this. And that’s a form of distancing.

8th