Lee Daniels is speaking out about Mo’Nique’s accusations against him saying that her situation is “completely different” from his issues with Dame Dash and she needs to take ownership for her lack of opportunities.
Daniels was thrust back into the spotlight recently after Dash posted a video on Instagram confronting the “Empire” creator over the $2 million he invested in him for 2009’s “Precious.” That film, which starred Mo’Nique, was where the comedian gained he reputation for being difficult to work with and refused to promote it overseas after she won an Oscar for it.
“Mo’Nique, I fought hard for her to get that job. I wanted her to get that job,” the director explains on TMZ’s “Raq Rants” segment Monday, July 2. “She was paid her money. She was paid the money for the budget we had. And for her to bad mouth myself, Tyler [Perry] and Oprah [Winfrey], it’s disrespectful and it’s wrong. She is wrong. She’s out of pocket. She’s really wrong.”
In May 2017, Mo’Nique went on an expletive-laden tirade against Daniels, Perry and Winfrey, blaming them for blackballing her in the industry. She’s also accused the group — — who produced “Precious” of not paying her fairly after getting just $50,000 for the film. She brought up that issue with Perry in recently unearthed secretly recorded phone calls.
“I respect her actor [sic] because she gave me her soul and I gave her my soul,” Daniels adds. “And for that, she was given the Golden Globe and the Academy Award. It breaks my heart that she feels we blackballed her. No one blackballed her. Mo’Nique blackballed her,” Daniel said. “For her to continue to talk about Oprah, myself and Tyler, it’s disrespectful.”
“I don’t understand her motive. I don’t get it. I really don’t,” he adds, noting that the producers were all Mo’Nique supporters and comparing their working with each other to “making love without having sex.”
“For her to think that I could do anything… I don’t know… It ain’t even worth the conversation,” he says. “Like, she needs to shut up.”
Still, not everyone is convinced by Daniels.
“Did he owes [sic] money? And the person who he owes money too had to shame him in public so he can pay back? So what credibility this person words have?”
“I have always despised this snake. Glad more are finally seeing him for what he is.”
