Mo’Nique says she deserves an apology. Following her best-supporting actress Oscar win for 2009’s Precious, the now 55-year-old comedian’s career seemingly stalled. She also became embroiled in a nasty lawsuit against Netflix, claiming the streamer unfairly negotiated a 2017 stand-up gig. A settlement was reached out of court in June 2022, and she now has an upcoming Netflix comedy special, My Name Is Mo’Nique. “I felt the same injustices and inequalities that all the Black women who came to Hollywood before me felt. Oftentimes people call that anger. They call it bitterness. They call it unstable,” Mo’Nique told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview. “They give it all these titles except what it really is.” She stated that many of her problems with the Precious awards campaign started when she refused to do free promotion for the film at the Cannes Film Festival, against the advice of director Lee Daniels and producers Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey.
“I said, ‘Oprah, I’m doing a talk show. I’m doing a comedy tour. I have a husband, and I have babies. I have a little bit of downtime, and I’m going to take advantage of it. So I’m not going anywhere because I’m not obligated to go anywhere. I’ve done my part,’” Mo’Nique recounted. “So we mutually agreed to disagree. That was it. Next thing I know, I am considered ‘difficult’ and ‘hard to work with.’” After accepting the Academy Award a few months later, Mo’Nique refused to thank Daniels in her acceptance speech, resulting in a 13-year feud between the two, during which the actor alleged that he “blackballed” her from advancing in the industry. However, the two have now reconciled and are once again working together to produce the upcoming Netflix horror film The Deliverance, in which Mo’Nique will replace Octavia Spencer as the lead.
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She said she has not yet reconciled with either Winfrey or Perry. Also, Mo’Nique revealed she harbors ill will toward Winfrey because Winfrey had several members of Mo’Nique’s family on her talk show in 2010, including a brother who confessed to molesting Mo’Nique when she was 7, and he was 13 years old. She stated that even though she had given Winfrey her blessing in hosting her brother, she did not wish for the other family members to attend as well. The piece mentioned that Mo’Nique was thankful to the people in the industry who supported her during the aftermath of the Oscars. For example, Donald Glover cast her in a short film in 2019, and Roseanne Barr, who Mo’Nique defended after she was fired from her ABC show for a racist tweet in 2018. “She didn’t want me to get hurt defending her,” Mo’Nique explained of publicly defending Barr.
