Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NAACP
The Mo’Nique vs. Tyler Perry drama first came to light in the summer of 2017, when the comedian, in a now-infamous rant, took the stage at her comedy show to dish on how she really felt about Perry, Oprah and Lee Daniels. Since then Mo has been very vocal about being blackballed by Hollywood after Precious, claiming the studio wanted her to pay for traveling to promote the film internationally. Once she declined (and rightfully so) the label of being “difficult” was attached and we all know what has come since then (i.e. her call to boycott Netflix).
Photo by Dan MacMedan/WireImage
Fast forward to this week and Rolling Out obtained audio from a secretly recorded phone call between Perry, Sidney Hicks and Mo’Nique. In the audio, you can hear Perry admit it was unfair for the studio to expect Mo to pay for her own travel, even saying he’d write Mo a check for the additional money the film made.
Via Rolling Out:
Sidney: “When you have that same Black man in Lee Daniels in an interview with Sundance — and I’m telling you somebody’s gonna get that interview — they say what was it like to work with Mo’Nique?”
Tyler: “She’s the Black Oprah Winfrey.”
Sidney: “She’s the Black version of Oprah Winfrey, and it was incredible.”
Tyler: “This is why I’m calling you right now. I just watched the podcast. And the reason I’m calling, I sat down here and watched it, and I’m looking at you and I’m looking at Mo’Nique and I see pain there, I see hurt. I don’t want to be a part of anybody, anybody being hurt.”
Mo’Nique: “It ain’t like I’m no b—- that show up at the party and I don’t perform. It ain’t like I show up drunk and high and I don’t know my lines, it ain’t like that. And y’all know that, so when you and that brother [Lee Daniels] got together a year ago, did y’all at any time say, ‘Ah man, what we did to that sister wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair’?”
Tyler: “I can totally see the way you see that, but this may piss you off 100% Mo’Nique but it’s the truth, I never wanted to look back on Precious or any of that. I chalked it up as a bad experience and I was ready to move on and move forward.”
Tyler: “If someone had said, ‘Tyler, this is what you need to do right now’; if you had picked up the phone and said, ‘Hey, somebody needs to do something to help me out here …’ ”
Mo’Nique: “You’re talking in Tyler Perry language. I would ask you to let Mo’Nique talk to Madea, because when you start talking in Tyler Perry language, brother, you talk like you don’t get it. [Tyler laughs] Right, n—a, you gotta laugh at it, cause, let me tell you, Tyler, when I watch your movies, I dig Madea, you know why I dig her? You know why I dig her, Tyler?”
Sidney: “Because she could be your mother.”
Mo’Nique: “You know why I dig her? Because that b—- is real to her gut and she don’t give a f— how it come out. She don’t give a f— how it is taken, but everybody know she love you, but she going to tell you the real sh*t. You see, when you stepped away from Madea and you became Tyler Perry the billionaire, this is the conversation we’re having saying what do you want me to do? What do you want me to say? You’re the brother that slept in your car [Tyler laughs] and you needed n—as to fight for you to get you up out the god—- car, — see your momma that you love so dearly, this is when the powers that be — everybody saying, ‘Oh my God it’s Oprah and Tyler,’ — they are the ones that can employ her, why ever would she say it? Because I love those n—as, that’s why I’m saying it. Because 100 years from now that we watched our brothers and sisters die and suffer in poverty and we know what is right, so what I’m saying to you, Madea [would] make Tyler’s a– step his a– up. I’m talking to Madea right now. Madea, I need you to pull Tyler’s ass in the back and say, ‘Baby, you watching this sister and her family starve. You’re watching it. What do you want me to do? Listen, don’t you play with that baby like that. You know the s— y’all did to her was wrong. You gave $400K – $500K to charity and you know that b—- got $50K. Where’s my pistol? Where’s my pistol? Cause I need to shoot this n—a. Now I’m not going to kill him, I’m going to shoot him in his a– to let him know Madea’s mad as s— right now.’ I appreciate you calling me. What you gonna do?”
Tyler: “This is Tyler Perry talking. I’m gonna call and find out what money is coming in from Precious, and I’m going to send that to you. I’m going to send that over to you. Whatever it is, I’m gonna send it to you.”
Tyler: “I don’t want you to feel, not one day, that you were mistreated, or that you were treated unfairly. Now, if that means that that’s what I need to do, you do that, and take it from a place of love.”
Wow. With the release of this and being confronted by Damon Dash earlier this week for not paying back the $2M loan he borrowed from the music mogul to produce Precious, it seems as if Daniels’ business affairs are questionable at the least.
Listen to the audio here and weigh in below.
TELL US: Fair or foul?
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