The creator of Empire is revealing the reasons why!
Lee Daniels recently sat down with Don Lemon on CNN Tonight to initially talk about his groundbreaking drama on Fox but the the conversation quickly turned to other topics — namely Mo’Nique and her belief that she was “blackballed” by Hollywood after she won a Oscar for her work in Daniels’ movie Precious!
And Lee doesn’t think Mo’Nique is wrong in her belief, and it all happened because she didn’t play the game during awards season. Now we have more details.
Here’s what he said:
“During the [Oscar] campaign, she was making unreasonable demands, and I remember thinking ├óΓé¼╦£this is when reverse racism happens.’ You have to thank the producers of the film, you have to thank the studio, and she didn’t understand that. People aren’t going to respond well. I love her, I’ve spoken to her. She’s brilliant, and I love working with brilliant people. Sometimes artists get in their own way ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ I know I certainly do often, I have my own demons. I think that there were demands that were made on the ├óΓé¼╦£Precious’ campaign that everyone knows hurt her. I told her that.You’ve gotta play ball. This is not just show ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ it is show business.”
He does NOT think, however, that any blackballing that happened to Mo’Nique was because of the color of her skin. He said:
“I don’t like calling the race card, if I buy into it, then it’s real.”
Well, Don Lemon then brought Mo’Nique on the show for her take and she definitely responded!
[ Related: Was Mo’Nique ‘Blackballed’ By Hollywood After Her Oscar Win? Empire Creator Lee Daniels Believes So! ]
She said she was “shocked” by what Precious director said, and claims she never made demands but rather just declined a request from the movie studio responsible for Precious. She said:
“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.'”
Mo’Nique later tweeted:
“What do you do when someone is trying to bully you. Play the game, or take a stand. I love yall for real.”
The whole truth may never be revealed, but we certainly hope Mo’Nique begins to work more as an actress because as Precious showed the world she’s really got some acting chops on her!!!
Oh, and btw: she made $50,000 for her role in Precious.
Check out the interview with Mo’Nique and Don Lemon down (below) !!!
[Image via Brian To/Derrick Salters/WENN.]
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