Mo’Nique To Adrienne Bailon On Being Blackballed: ‘You’re Too Young To Understand, You Get A Pass’
“My loves. This BABY gets a pass. She is to [sic] young to even begin to understand. However @AdrienneBailon if you would like to discuss we open. @AdrienneBailon we await your reply sister. This is Mo’Nique. I hope I’m not being to [sic] loud for you. Lol. @AdrienneBailon by the way I am fighting for young sisters like you who haven’t won an Academy Award. @AdrienneBailon if u really want 2tell us something, my husband and I would b more than happy to come on the show, you can tell us directly.”
Bailon said she has an issue with the public feeling as if just because someone is loud or boisterous that they are “keeping it real.”
“Why does it always have to be that, just because you’re all over the place being loud and making a lot of noise, that that’s the truth and that’s real? Why can’t keeping it real be classy?”
Adrienne asked why can’t “keeping it real” be a respectful form of communication.
“Why can’t keeping it real be, ‘let me hold my peace and let me move on?’ Why can’t keeping it real be, ‘you know what – they may have done that but I’m going to respect that and move forward.’ Why can’t that be keeping it real?”
Mo’Nique slammed Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and once again, Lee Daniels, in front of a cheering audience over the weekend. The comedian was very passionate and used an excessive amount of explicit and disparaging language when discussing being on the outskirts of Hollywood.
“I was not blackballed. I was white balled. Thank you, Mr. Lee Daniels. Thank you, Mr. Tyler Perry. Thank you, Ms. Oprah Winfrey.”
Mo’Nique’s performance took place at the Apollo Theater in New York City on Saturday night. Due to the amount of profanity in the clip, Mo’Nique’s video can be seen here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocsg63kvvCs
In 2015, after Mo’Nique took home an Academy Award, she alleged that the monetary amount offered for new roles were extraordinarily low. Mo’Nique revealed to the Hollywood Reporter that she was informed by Lee Daniels, the director of Precious and producer of Empire, that she had been “blackballed.”
“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.’
The Academy Award-winning actress said she was told the alleged blackballing was due to her behavior during awards season when the movie was up for consideration in 2009. Mo’Nique adamantly claims she was blackballed after Precious because she “didn’t play the game.”
“And I said, ‘I’ve been blackballed? Why have I been blackballed?'” she continued. “And he said, ‘Because you didn’t play the game.’ And I said, ‘Well, what game is that?’ And he gave me no response.”
Roger Friedman of the Hollywood Reporter noted that Mo’Nique had been demanding payments for personal appearances that were meant to promote the film.
In speaking with TMZ regarding her onstage comments, Mo’Nique, alongside her husband, Sidney Hicks, said that everything she says “comes from my heart” and cited late comedian Richard Pryor for inspiring her to speak her truth.
[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
