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Home / Entertainment

Why Hollywood blackballed Oscar winner Mo'Nique

AAP
1 Mar, 2015 10:30 PM2 mins to read

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Mo'Nique starred in the movie Precious.

Mo'Nique starred in the movie Precious.

Filmmaker Lee Daniels has expanded on comments he recently made about his Precious star Mo'nique, revealing she was "blackballed" by Hollywood because she made "unreasonable demands" during her Oscars campaign.

Mo'nique picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Mary in the hard-hitting film, but Daniels claims she didn't make many friends in the run up to the Oscars - and she recently revealed he told her she had been labelled difficult to work with by some movie executives.

Now, Daniels has told CNN Tonight Mo'Nique only has herself to blame for her unpopularity in Tinseltown.

He said, "During the (Oscars) campaign, she was making unreasonable demands, and I remember thinking, 'This is when reverse racism happens'. You have to thank the producers of the film, you have to thank the studio, and she didn't understand that. People aren't going to respond well.

"I love her, I've spoken to her. She's brilliant, and I love working with brilliant people (but) sometimes artists get in their own way... I think that there were demands that were made on the Precious campaign that everyone knows hurt her. I told her that. You've gotta play ball. This is not just show, it is showbusiness."

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CNN Tonight host Don Lemon then asked Mo'Nique to join him on the show and she confessed she was "shocked" by what the director said, insisting, "There were no demands. There was a request from the movie studio that I fly to France for the Cannes Film Festival. I simply said, 'I respectfully decline'."

She later took to Twitter and added, "What do you do when someone is trying to bully you. Play the game, or take a stand. I love yall (sic) for real."

Mo'Nique recently told The Hollywood Reporter she had been up for roles in Daniels' The Butler and his new TV series Empire but lost out despite her Oscars win.

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