By: Amanda Anderson-Niles
Mo’Nique has been in the headlines as of late because she claimed Lee Daniels told her she had been blackballed because of her behavior during her Oscar run, and she claims she was originally supposed to play Cookie.
She tells Inside Edition:
“When he called me up, he offered me the role in Empire as Cookie. 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.”
As far as Lee’s most recent comments (he says Mo’Nique hurt her own career by making ridiculous demands), she tells the Wrap:
“It wasn’t that I was blackballed like Mr. Daniels said… the phone was ringing and the scripts were coming but the offers that were associated with them made me say ‘I can’t accept that.’
“If we continue to accept these low offers, how do we make a change?”
Mo’Nique says she declined to go to the Cannes Film Festival to promote “Precious” because the studio refused to pay her for going (her husband told the studio she needed to be compensated for travel although they claim no actor is paid for promotional activities), and that is when people started to say she was too demanding to work with.
She also says she was paid $50,000 for her work in”Precious.”
First of all, Monique could NEVER be Cookie – she doesn’t have the acting chops. Nor could she go up with Terrance…those love scenes would’ve been tragic. Second, she started this “blackball” sh-t and is now backtracking like a mug! Please tell me she has a project coming out and is not making herself look this stupid just because?
This. Man those love scenes would have been hilarious if Mo’Nique was Cookie. Taraji is the better choice.
i would have barfed if monique showed her azs. lol
I really can’t see her playing Cookie. Taraji was made for this show.
Lol forreal
Bullsh-t. Lee said he always had Taraji in mind to be Cookie. Mo’Nique is really making herself look foolish. Just stop talking about this already.
Yeah he did say that. I think she’s just upset and jealous about all the attention Empire is getting. Especially since Lee is the person who told her people aren’t feeling her anymore.
But she’s the one who said she believe she was blackballed. She’s the one who said the roles just disappeared. So now she had so any offers but just didn’t like them? Really? This is the same woman who was in Roscoe Jenkins, The Parkers and Phat Girlz.
So she turned down roles because they were too stereotypical, but she wanted to play Cookie…a character many feel has stereotypical traits. Girl stop the lies.
Monique just shut the hell up already and keep it moving. Monique is not very smart and all this talking she is doing is continuing to hurt her career. She is proving exactly what people are saying about her is true. It’s not even about if she is right or wrong anymore perception is everything and she is looking like a sour puss. Nobody could have played Cookie like Taraji nobody.
The show would have flopped if Mo’Nique was Cookie.
She’s backtracking.
Has she lost her mind? She originally said Lee told her she was backlisted and all the roles just started to go away. Now she’s saying she’s good and has no problem getting roles? Ok so why bring this up in the first place? This is so dumb.
She could never!!!!! I’d like to see her bust up in an office and shut it down in some fie lingerie. She wouldn’t even BEGIN to be able to give boo boo kitty a run for her money… Somebody please call Professor Olgevee to keep this broad occupied.
Nope.
I could not see her being Cookie. Not even a little bit.
Lies, fairytales and fallacies. I don’t believe a word that comes out of this bish mouth anymore. She tried throw Lee under a bus because he told her the damn truth but you can’t be mad at the truth. And I highly doubt he ever considered her to play Cookie. Cookie was written to have sex appeal. Mo’Nique just ain’t sexy.