Mo’Nique Says Her Oscar Actually Hurt Her Career

Beware, this weekend’s Oscar winners: an Academy Award does not necessarily translate to increased career opportunities, acting cred, and bank statements. At least according to Mo’Nique, who tells The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview that the reason she’s only appeared in one film since her 2010 Oscar win is because she was “blackballed.”

In the five years since her supporting-actress Oscar win for Precious, Mo’Nique has only appeared in 2014’s Blackbird. If she had her way though, the comedian would have coasted from that acting victory into more dramatic roles, especially those directed by Precious filmmaker Lee Daniels. And for awhile, she tells T.H.R.’s Seth Abramovitch, it looked as thought it was going to happen that way.

“I was offered the role in The Butler that Oprah Winfrey played. I was also approached by Empire to be on Empire. And I was also offered the role as Richard Pryor's grandmother in [Daniels' upcoming Pryor biopic]. Each of those things that he offered me was taken off the table. (Laughs.) They all just went away. But that's just part of the business, you know? I can't be upset at anybody, 'cause life is too good. It's just what it is.

To the filmmaker’s credit, Mo’Nique says he called her directly to rescind the offers and to eventually explain why he had to in the first place.

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." And I said, "I've been blackballed? Why have I been blackballed?" And he said, "Because you didn't play the game."

In 2010, Mo’Nique said herself that she refused to play the awards-season game, boldly electing not to attend the endless stream of brunches, luncheons, dinners, cocktail parties, and Q&As that make up the Oscar circuit. “President Barack Obama had to campaign because he had something to prove: that he could do it,” she told David Carr of the New York Times during the lead-up to the Academy Awards. “Well, the performance is on the screen. So at what point am I still trying to prove something?” (At the time, it should be noted, the entertainer was busy enough taping a daily talk show in Atlanta, BET’s The Mo’Nique Show.) And for the same piece, Daniels seemed supportive of Mo’Nique’s decision, adding, “We are in our bubble, and we pay no attention to any talk about what she should and not be doing right now.”

It seems as though the filmmaker was retroactively forced to pay attention though when pushing forward on other projects. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Daniels writes:

“Mo'nique is a creative force to be reckoned with. Her demands through Precious were not always in line with the campaign. This soured her relationship with the Hollywood community. I consider her a friend. I have and will always think of her for parts that we can collaborate on. However, the consensus among the creative teams and powers thus far were to go another way with these roles.”

And while that role has yet to surface, the actress is set to appear on the small screen at least, in an HBO film about blues legend Bessie Smith starring Queen Latifah.