Mo’Nique’s star-turning role as the complex and vicious Mary Jones in 2009’s Precious was supposed to launch her career into the stratosphere and make her a Hollywood powerhouse. But since then, fans have seen little of Mo’Nique on the silver screen, leaving many to wonder just what happened to her career. But now Mo’Nique is finally speaking out and revealing that she was “blackballed” by the industry.
In a candid new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mo’Nique discussed the notable controversy surrounding her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress in 2010, which many experts noted as radical and extraordinary since Mo’Nique didn’t campaign around the Hollywood scene to secure her win like most actors do.
“The things people were writing and saying, it was mind-blowing. But what I was saying was, ‘You want me to campaign for an award — and I say this with all the humility in the world — but you want me to campaign for an award that I didn’t ask for.’ So when I’m in Utah at the Sundance Festival, and an Asian brother comes up to me and breaks down in my arms, and says, ‘Mo’Nique, I am Mary Jones,’ do you know that’s the biggest award you could receive? It had nothing to do with a trophy. If people want to say I didn’t campaign because I took my family first? I’ll accept that,” Mo’Nique shared.
However, that attitude toward Hollywood and its politics has come at a high price and Mo’Nique explained that it was Precious director and co-producer Lee Daniels who revealed to her recently that she’s been blackballed.
“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. Hattie [McDaniel] said, ‘After I won that award, it was as if I had done something wrong.’ It was the same with me. I thought, once you won the award, that’s the top prize — and so you’re supposed to be treated as if you got the top prize,” said Mo’Nique
“I got a phone call from Lee Daniels maybe six or seven months ago,” she added. “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.
But that’s not all Mo’Nique revealed about her sad and shocking blackballing. Read the rest of her confession, as a well as a statement from Daniels, after the cut.
