14 DAY TRIAL // The April 2010 issue of GQ Magazine brings an interview with none other than actor Wesley Snipes, who was charged with numerous counts of tax evasion and conspiracy, found guilty on three misdemeanor charges and sentenced to three years in jail. As his attorneys are working on an appeal to the sentence – the maximum he could have got – the star is, for the first time, opening up about the possibility of going to jail.
Though he refused to testify in the trial as per his attorneys’ instructions, Snipes doesn’t shun the topic of what he’d make of his life if he’s to fulfill the initial sentence. This is a possibility that not only looms around the corner but of which he’s also fully aware, considering it a given. If his lawyers can have the sentence reduced or converted into community time, then that’s perfect – but he doesn’t want to rely on that and have a shock when he’s told he’s to present himself for jail time.
“Nobody wants to get locked up, although ‘locked up’ is a matter of perspective. There can be people who are out who are in prison mentally and emotionally and worse off than those who are behind bars. With all due respect, being a young black man in America, you’re prepared for [going to jail] every day. […] With the grace of God. Quickly, soundly, with health and the knowledge that these things, too, shall pass. These things, too, shall pass. And I’ll still have my talent. And hopefully I’ll still have my mind. I can deal with it,” Snipe says of having to go to jail, proving that optimism is, indeed, incurable.
In the same lengthy piece, the actor also talks about the death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, saying his life and, ultimately, his death are the perfect example of how we don’t know how to appreciate something until it’s gone. “We were sent an angel. Not that he was an angel, but we were sent an angel. To heal, to inspire, to evoke thoughts of beauty and love in this world of chaos. And we didn’t take good care of it,” the actor says of the late singer, who spent the last years of his life being intensely criticized by the media and the public.
For the full interview with Wesley Snipes for GQ, please refer here.