Mo’Nique is taking the time once again to air out her longstanding grievances with Tyler Perry leaving many to wonder if and when she’ll give up on her quest for justice from the Hollywood mogul. But the longer we think about it, the more we realize that she actually shouldn’t give up and there’s a good reason why.
As you well know, the beef between the two stars dates all the way back to 2009 when the “Precious” star refused to fly out to France for a non-contractually obligated appearance to promote the aforementioned film at that year’s Cannes Film Festival. Due to her refusal, Perry—who was one of the executive producers of the film alongside Oprah Winfrey—labeled her as “difficult to work with” and essentially blackballed her from the industry.
What transpired in the years that followed was a complete slowdown in jobs for Mo’Nique and countless call outs where she blasted Perry for the part he played in her career downfall. She event went so far as to making multiple posts on social media about him, posting an audio conversation of Perry admitting he did wrong by her and that he would eventually apologize, doing long interviews about him, blasting him during a comedy set and more.
Earlier this month, Mo’Nique attempted to once again get Perry’s attention by calling him out for his “hypocritical” sermon at Angie Stone’s funeral—but it came to naught. Now, over the weekend, during a new interview with Rodney “Red” Grant for his YouTube channel, “The Parkers” star is once again speaking her peace.
“I’m not difficult to work with, Im just not gon’ put up with no foolishness. And I’m not about to let you treat anybody else bad that we’re playing with,” she said in part. “So I think that the misconception became—and the misconception came from Tyler Perry. I’m not trying to dress it up, I’m too damn grown to be scared to say it out loud. But when that brother said she’s difficult to work with, well people ran with that. It affected my career for 12 years.”
And that’s exactly why she shouldn’t keep quiet. Do you know how many TV shows she could’ve filmed in twelve years? Do you know how many films she could’ve done in twelve years? Having to miss out on numerous opportunities and numerous paychecks based off a false perception is something no working person would take lightly in any line of business. So why should Mo’Nique be expected to just take the cards she’s been dealt and go sit down quietly?
Let’s not forget the fact that in leaked audio from 2017—that was also mentioned in Mo’s viral “Club Shay Shay” interview a couple years ago, Perry himself admitted that it was wrong for Mo’nique to do something she wasn’t contractually obligated to do. He also said she’d get an apology from him once things cooled down and he’d was doing press for his then upcoming film “Boo 2! A Madea Halloween.” It’s been years since that conversation and we’ve yet to see Perry make good on what he said.
And realistically speaking, Mo’Nique may be waiting even longer to get what she feels she’d rightly owed from him, specifically an apology and some sort of monetary recompense. But if her track record in the court room is any indication of how things will eventually play out with the “Madea” creator—she might ought to keep holding out hope and raising hell for a little while longer.
Look, we get it: it’s been years, Mo’Nique is loud, “brash,” a big Black woman with “an attitude” and won’t back down. And she’s going against the juggernaut of an industry man like Perry. But be that as it may, she absolutely has every right to continue to push for the justice she feels she deserves no matter who wronged her. Instead of quietly wishing for her to hush, maybe we should instead use our energy to push for the both of them to finally come to the table and work this thing on out.