For weeks now, Mo’Nique has been in the papers discussing her alleged blackballing in Hollywood over the movie Precious and her growing feud with director and producer Lee Daniels. This week alone, she claimed that Daniels lied about Hollywood thinking she’s “difficult” and also claimed that he offered her roles in “Empire” and The Butler. Now, one of the creators of “Empire” is speaking out and saying that Mo’Nique is lying about having been offered a role on the show.
As previously reported, Mo’Niqe recently claimed that she was offered the part of Cookie Lyon in “Empire,” a role which was eventually given to actress Taraji P. Henson.
“When he called me up, he offered me the role in ‘Empire’ as Cookie,” Mo’Nique shared about the offer she allegedly received from Daniels. “Maybe four days had gone by, and I hadn’t heard anything. So I’m trying to reach out to him to say, what time do I need to be in? Where do I need to be? When he finally returned the call, he says listen, the executives at Fox said that you’re difficult.”
However, Danny Strong, the co-creator of “Empire” and The Butler recently spoke with Sway Calloway and explained that he had no knowledge that Mo’Nique was ever offered parts in his projects.
“Well, I don’t know if Lee Daniels had a conversation, with Mo’Nique about it that I don’t know about. I know that Lee and I were partners on this project and we discussed Mo’Nique once, very briefly. And from my knowledge, unless there was some conversation that I never knew about, we never offered her the part. And it was — she wasn’t going to be Cookie. That was never something that was on the table. For us. We both felt she was incredibly talented and a genius. I’m not saying that she’s not telling the truth. … As far as the conversations that I had, with Lee about it. It was always Taraji. That was just one of our earliest ideas,” Strong explained.
But that’s not all that Strong had to say about Mo’Nique. Read what he had to say about her alleged offer to be in The Butler, as well as what Mo’Nique’s Precious co-star, Gabourey Sidibe, had to say about the scandal.
