Lee Daniels and Mo'Nique to reunite for new movie after finally squashing Precious beef
Twelve years after winning an Oscar for 2009's Precious, Mo'Nique is finally reuniting with the director who helped make it happen — and whom she long accused of blackballing her in the years that followed.
The comedian will once again work with filmmaker Lee Daniels on Demon House, a new movie for Netflix, coming aboard the project after Octavia Spencer dropped out, EW has confirmed.
Mo'Nique and Daniels also publicly settled their long-running feud on Friday, as the director stopped by a New York comedy show where the actress was performing.
In a video posted to Twitter, Daniels can be seen embracing Mo'Nique and apologizing to her. "I am so sorry for hurting you in any way that I did," he said, before telling the audience, "She was my best friend, my best friend. Y'all think that Precious was just — that was God working, through both of us. And we're gonna f---ing do it again!"
According to Deadline, which first reported the news of their reunion, Demon House will see Mo'Nique play a social worker who assists a family with a series of exorcisms. The thriller, which also stars Andra Day, Glenn Close, and King Richard Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis, is set to begin production in June.
This reunion between Daniels and Mo'Nique follows a long period of tension between the two. In 2015, the comedian told The Hollywood Reporter that she was "blackballed" after winning her Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
"I got a phone call from Lee Daniels maybe six or seven months ago," Mo'Nique said at the time. "And he said to me, 'Mo'Nique, you've been blackballed.' And I said, 'I've been blackballed? Why have I been blackballed?' And he said, 'Because you didn't play the game.' And I said, 'Well, what game is that?' And he gave me no response."
In a statement to THR, Daniels said, "Mo'Nique is a creative force to be reckoned with. Her demands through Precious were not always in line with the campaign. This soured her relationship with the Hollywood community. I consider her a friend. I have and will always think of her for parts that we can collaborate on. However, the consensus among the creative teams and powers thus far were to go another way with these roles."
In 2018, Daniels told TMZ, "It breaks my heart that she feels that we blackballed her. No one blackballed her. Mo'Nique blackballed her."
Now, however, it seems they have put the bad blood behind them. Both Daniels and Mo'Nique shared photos to their respective Instagram pages Friday night confirming their beef has been squashed.
"No caption needed," Daniels wrote alongside photos of the two embracing. Mo'Nique echoed, "NO CAPTION NEEDED I LOVE US 4REAL."
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