Mo’Nique calls out Whoopi Goldberg for “schooling” her The view Eight years ago because the actress refused to promote the film costly outside.
Mo’Nique took to Instagram to write an open letter about the incident, in which Goldberg criticized Mo’Nique’s decision not to participate in additional promotion for her starring role in Lee Daniels’ acclaimed 2009 film. Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role, Mo’Nique says the uproar resulting from her decision severely hurt her career in Hollywood.
Addressing “Sister Whoopi,” Mo’Nique says she was inspired by seeing a resurfaced clip (watch it below) of their exchange (though she’s also addressed that issue periodically over the years).
“tone [watching the resurfaced] “Comments today look different than they did eight years ago,” she wrote (read the full text below), with many people now agreeing with my sentiments about not working for people or entities to whom I owe nothing. I wonder, have your feelings changed since then?
“I was also curious to learn that in 1993 there was an attempt to prosecute you [to appear in the flop] Theodore Rex“Because you allegedly made a verbal commitment to the film,” she continued. “Your defense was that you never actually committed. You can imagine how confused I was when I found that out, especially since when I explained that my only contractual obligation was to Lee Daniels, it didn’t sway your opinion enough to prevent you from saying that you could have ‘taught’ me to do what they expected of me… I will await your response as to whether you still feel you taught me correctly.”
“Although[[costly She continued: “Producer Tyler Perry privately admitted in an audio recording that he was wrong when he said I was difficult to work with, and to this day he has not corrected that publicly. The reason I said ‘we gotta take care of the little girl coming up behind us’ is because of situations like Epstein Island and other powerful people avoiding accountability.” People like Tyler Perry refused to take responsibility, while I had to take responsibility for refusing to engage in an act of slavery against my will. The worst part is that another woman punished me on a platform aimed at empowering women… [was] Your true position is to stand against falsehood, or is it to stand with the “right people”? …So, are you willing to do what’s right for the little girls who come after us, or is your attitude still “F” for the little girl who comes after us? I look forward to finding out.
The crux of the original issue appears to be Mo’Nique’s contractual obligation costly Apparently she didn’t mention that she was expected to participate in promotions overseas. When she rejected Daniels and Perry’s efforts to get her to do additional promotion for free, she claimed the industry shunned her. While Goldberg’s position appears to be that actors are usually expected to do whatever they can to promote the film, she expressed doubt that there was no such clause in her contract.
originally view “In this movie, I got paid $50,000 — and that wasn’t my argument or my fight, because that’s what I signed up for. Once I had done all my obligations, my deal was with a guy named Lee Daniels. I had done all my contractual obligations, and I was done. Then, when I started getting calls from Lee Daniels, Tyler Perry, [producer] Oprah Winfrey, and [studio] Lionsgate, and they wanted me to work for free. They wanted to… promote this film internationally. And I told them, ‘Guys, my deal is with Lee Daniels, and I’ve done my job.’ They all agreed! This is what happens, in my humble opinion, when you don’t go up to the hotel room.
Goldberg listened to Monique, crossed her arms, and then interjected, “I’m going to stop you. Under the contract, when you make a movie, no matter who you sign with, your job is to promote said movie. So when they wanted you to come — and we had this conversation — and I said, ‘If you call me, I can let you know what to expect.'”
“And when we had that conversation, what I said to you, my dear sister, I said: Whoopi, at what point are we going to stop saying ‘next time’? If I had done something contractually wrong, they would have sued me. And the reason why nobody can do anything to me contractually, is because they found out that I haven’t done anything wrong contractually. So when they asked me to go abroad to promote the movie, I said: Guys, I’m spending time with my family, I’ll do it.” “That.” pass. … What Tyler Perry, Lee Daniels, Oprah Winfrey, and Lionsgate showed me is: When you don’t do what we tell you to do, we’ll take your livelihood. “So, for eight years, my family suffered and my career suffered, because what I wouldn’t allow those entities to do was bully me.”
goldberg, The view Perry had no immediate comment.
