It all started 2 years ago, in February 2015, with a rather revealing interview Mo’Nique gave to The Hollywood Reporter, in which she dished on the criticism she faced for her role in “Precious,” what life after Oscar had been like in terms of opportunities and income, and discovering that she’d been blacklisted/blackballed in Hollywood. Why? The actress herself wasn’t entirely certain, but suggested potential reasons based on what others, including her “Precious” director, Lee Daniels, told her.
To wit, from 2015: “What I understood was that when I won that Oscar, things would change in all the ways you’re saying: It should come with more respect, more choices and more money. It should, and it normally does […] I got a phone call from Lee Daniels maybe six or seven months ago. And he said to me, ‘Mo’Nique, you’ve been blackballed.’ And I said, ‘I’ve been blackballed? Why have I been blackballed?’ And he said, ‘Because you didn’t play the game.’ And I said, ‘Well, what game is that?’ And he gave me no response. The next thing he said to me was, ‘Your husband is outbidding you.’ But he never asked me what [salary] we were asking for. You know, my husband and I had to change things so we wouldn’t have to depend on [others]. So we do it independently. We’re very proud of taking the independent route…”
A week later, both Mo’Nique and Lee Daniels appeared on Don Lemon’s program on CNN – although each on a different day of the week. And, of course, Lemon asked both of them about, let’s call it, “the situation;” first he talked to Daniels who, essentially, reiterated what he’d said previously: “I think that there were demands that were made on the ‘Precious’ campaign that everyone knows hurt her. I told her that […] You’ve gotta play ball. This is not just show — it is show business.”
He said more than that, but that’s really the gist of it.
The day after Daniels appeared on Lemon’s program, Mo’Nique did the same, and, naturally, Lemon asked her to react to what Daniels said the day prior, and she explained: “There were no demands. There was a request from the movie studio that I fly to France for the Cannes Film Festival. I simply said, ‘I respectfully decline’ [..] I had a couple of days downtime and I wanted to spend that with my husband and my kids.”
But the film’s distributor (Lionsgate) apparently kept trying to convince her to make the trip, and eventually asked what it would take to get her to come to Cannes to promote the film. And her husband, who is also her manager, asked in reply: “Is there a number associated with it?” As in, will she be paid for the trip. Of course the studio responded in the negative, insisting that it was promotional work for a movie she was co-starring in.
Mo’Nique continued, explaining to Lemon that she got paid just $50,000 for her role in “Precious,” and so she hoped that they would’ve received some financial assistance to cover her travel and promote the movie: “It really wasn’t about the money and I am not complaining because I signed up to do it [‘Precious’] with my friend […] When the movie studio said we can’t pay you to do this, we [her husband and herself] didn’t have a problem with that.”
And she went on for a little bit more, eventually switching over to conversation about her next film, the indie-produced drama “Blackbird,” directed by Patrik-Ian Polk, co-starring Isaiah Washington.
She also co-starred in the HBO Films drama “Bessie,” which was directed by Dee Rees, playing blues legend Ma Rainey, alongside Queen Latifah who starred. And at the time, questions of her being blackballed were raised, because it appeared that maybe she was getting work, and was clearly making moves, getting lots of attention at the same time.
It all eventually went away, and rather quickly, and it seemed any wounds between Daniels and Mo’Nique had been healed; at least on the surface. Maybe it was just a band-aid given today’s news.
During a standup special over the weekend, Saturday night at the Apollo Theater, Mo’Nique wasn’t at all shy about speaking out on what happened 2 years ago, something we’d actually forgotten about. She was quite explicit in calling out not only Lee Daniels, but also Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey; the latter 2 came on board to help promote “Precious” as executive producers, although this was after the film had been made, and it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was very well received by critics. Unless I just missed it, she hasn’t, before today, mentioned their names when discussing her apparent blackballing. It had always been between her and Daniels (at least in their public exchanges).
A video of the above moment was captured by an attendee and has gone viral today; watch it below.
I should note that, in addition to roles in HBO’s “Bessie” and Polk’s “Blackbird,” Mo’Nique most recently appeared in David Talbert’s “Almost Christmas” last fall; in fact, she had a fairly significant role in the movie. She also starred in a 2016 indie drama titled “Interwoven.” And clearly her stand-up comedy shows still seem to pack the houses, so while her Oscar win for “Precious” didn’t lead to the kind of career she expected to have afterward, she’s still working. Although there was a 5+ year gap between her Oscar win for “Precious” and starring in the indie drama “Blackbird”; 5 years too long to be without work, especially after winning an Oscar and not being able to capitalize on it because you’ve been blackballed.
Her explicit calling out of Daniels, Perry and Winfrey is below:
