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Lee Daniels and Mo’Nique have teamed up for the upcoming Netflix film Demon House, nearly 13 years after they last worked together on the 2009 drama Precious. The duo have been embroiled in a longstanding feud since Mo’Nique accused Daniels of blackballing her in 2015.
However, the pair finally decided to leave behind their bitter past and reconciled during the Mo’Nique and Friends: April Fools Day with The Queen of Comedy event at St. George Theatre on Staten Island on April 1, 2022.
A video documenting their reconciliation showed Daniels going onstage to apologize to a visibly emotional Mo’Nique. He said,
“I am so sorry for hurting you in any way that I did. Y’all, and she was my best friend — my best friend. Y’all think that Precious was just… That was God working, through both of us. And we’re gonna f***ing do it again!”
The duo also enjoyed a brief dance onstage before embracing each other while exchanging I love yous. They even shared moments from their reconciliation on their respective social media.
Mo’Nique will be replacing Octavia Spencer in the upcoming Netflix project, as the latter has had to pull out due to a scheduling conflict with her Apple TV+ show Truth Be Told. The Almost Christmas star will join artists like Andra Day, Glenn Close, Rob Morgan, Caleb McLaughlin, and Aunjanue Ellis for the film.
A look into Mo’Nique and Lee Daniels’ past beef
Mo’Nique and Lee Daniels first worked together for the 2005 crime thriller Shadowboxer. The duo later made news after teaming up for the critically-acclaimed 2009 film Precious. The movie also earned the former an Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actress.
However, Daniels and Mo’Nique got embroiled in a feud when the latter accused the director, along with Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey, of allegedly blackballing her from Hollywood after she refused to promote Precious during awards season without extra payment and instead spent time with her family.
Daniels, Perry, and Winfrey denied the claims at the time and the former reportedly stopped talking to Mo’Nique. The drama intensified further after the actress told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 that she had not received the desired pay increment following her Oscar win.
During the interview, Mo’Nique repeated her past statement and said Lee Daniels told her she had been blackballed from Hollywood. She shared,
“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. 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.”
In response, Daniels told the publication that the actress’ demand was never in-line with the Precious promotional campaign.
He said,
“Her demands through Precious were not always in line with the campaign. This soured her relationship with the Hollywood community.”
The following month, Mo’Nique told Good Morning America that Daniels allegedly “had a problem” after she did not take his name in her acceptance speech during the 2009 Oscar awards. Meanwhile, Daniels told TMZ that he never blackballed Mo’Nique. He claimed,
“I respect her [as an] actor because she gave me her soul, but I gave her my soul. And for that she was given the Golden Globe and the Academy Award… and it breaks my heart that she feels that we blackballed her. No one blackballed her. Mo’Nique blackballed her. And for her to continue to speak about Oprah and myself and Tyler is disrespectful.”
During an appearance on Raq Rants, the director also said that he “fought hard” to make Mo’Nique get the role in Precious and that the actress’ claims against him were wrong. He said,
“I fought hard for her to get that job. For her to bad-mouth myself and Tyler and Oprah is disrespectful and it’s wrong. She’s wrong. She’s out of pocket. It ain’t even worth a conversation. She needs to shut up.”
Mo’Nique also asked Daniels to “shut up” in return and called him out once again in an Instagram post. Following several years of beef, the duo finally decided to put an end to their conflict and rekindled their working relationship last week.
Was Mo’Nique “canceled” from Hollywood?
Mo’Nique was set to become one of the most prominent names in Hollywood after she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2009. Unfortunately, the actress became embroiled in a highly-publicized feud with Precious director Lee Daniels and started moving away from the spotlight amid the controversy.
After the actress was called out for refusing to promote her film, she told CBS that she was only paid $50K for the movie and denied promotional appearances after the studio refused to pay her for the same.
She then claimed that her decision to "respectfully decline" attending the Cannes Film Festival pushed her out of the limelight. Additionally, Mo’Nique also threw shade while receiving her Oscar Award in 2009. She said,
“Thank you to the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics.”
The actress also told The Hollywood Reporter that she was set to be cast on The Butler as well as Lee Daniels’ Empire but lost those roles after winning her Oscars.
Mo’Nique’s verbal hit at Lee Daniels, Tyler Perry, and Oprah Winfrey during one of her stand-up routines also left many people disappointed with the actress.
Moreover, she also got in trouble after attempting to boycott Netflix on grounds of “gender bias and color bias.” She claimed that the streaming giant offered her $500K for an hour-long comedy special, which was a much lower than the $13 million payscale of her fellow comedian Amy Schumer.
Since the initial boycott failed to gain traction, Mo’Nique filed a discrimination lawsuit against Netflix in November 2019 accusing the streaming platform of discrimination based on her “gender and race/color.” In January 2020, Netflix called the suit “nonsensical” in nature.
Mo’Nique largely faded away from the spotlight over the years. Her last major film role was in 2016’s Almost Christmas and she was last seen on TV in 2015’s Bessie. However, the actress is finally set to make a comeback alongside Lee Daniels on Netflix’s horror film Demon House.
