Earlier this week, Mo’Nique released emails proving director Lee Daniels reached out to her regarding the role of Cookie on “Empire.” On Thursday, the actress explained to HuffPost Live why she felt she had no choice but to use the emails to clear the air.
Mo’Nique — who joined host Marc Lamont Hill, along with Isaiah Washington and Julian Walker, to discuss their film “Blackbird,”– previously claimed she has been “blackballed” in Hollywood following her 2010 Oscar win for her role in “Precious,” a film Daniels directed. It was a comment that prompted weeks-long banter between the actress and director and one that made headlines everywhere.
In effort to lay the issue to rest, Mo’Nique eventually released emails, one of which includes a response from a representative of Daniels who wrote the following about a screen test for the role of Cookie: “This is a time sensitive matter. Lee really does not want Mo’Nique to miss this opportunity.”
However, her transparency regarding the emails is a move Mo’Nique had planned to make — and one she says she forewarned Daniels about.
“Before I gave those emails to Sway, we sent Mr. Daniels an email — because we love that brother — to say, ‘Hey brother, we don’t want to blindside you. We want to let you know we’re gonna have to show these because what you’re doing right now is you are having my character put in question.’ And we never got a response,” Mo’Nique said. “So the reason why I had to do that is because I take pride in my character. I take pride in my integrity.”
The actress added that she feels no animosity for Daniels, who she described as “one of the most brilliant visionaries this world has ever seen,” but she simply couldn’t allow anyone to think she wasn’t being truthful about being offered the part.
“It’s easier to go … ‘let’s go past it,’ but we can’t just keep going past it because then things will never change,” Mo’Nique told HuffPost Live. “There’s some people in our history that said we can’t keep going past it because it we keep going past it, we may still be drinking out of a black water fountain and a white water fountain. … So I had to show those emails to say, ‘Brother, all I’m asking you to do is clear my name.'”
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with the cast of “Blackbird” here.
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