Lee Daniels’ latest horror film, “The Deliverance,” brings together the director and Mo’Nique, his Oscar-winning star from “Precious,” after a prolonged period of conflict between them.
Even with the tension arising from Mo’Nique’s public remarks about Daniels and “Precious” producer Oprah Winfrey, the actress remained confident that they would eventually collaborate once more. While speaking with Variety at the “Deliverance” premiere in Los Angeles Mo’Nique stated that Lee Daniels is her friend.
“You ever have somebody in your life where your chemistry is right there but something happened and it pulls you apart, but you don’t forget the heart of the person?” she continued. “You don’t forget the purity of this person and you say, ‘I’m willing to fight for this friendship.’”
Lee Daniels also spoke about what it was like for them to be on set together again. “It was emotional,” he said. “It was like, ‘We had been fighting all this time about what?’ But then it was just like, ‘OK, b*tch, say your f**king line.’ She was like, ‘OK, Mr. Daniels!’”
As we previously reported, Lee Daniels needed to address and resolve a conflict that arose between him and Mo’Nique in the years following their collaboration on the Academy Award-winning film, Precious, in 2009.
“Wasn’t that God working? First of all, part of me trying to find my higher power was also understanding what that meant,” Daniels said to The Hollywood Reporter a week ago. “And that meant forgiveness, that meant apologizing, even if I didn’t understand what I was apologizing for. I had to understand that she was hurt, and that is my sister, and that I love her.”
Even though Mo’Nique received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Precious in 2010, she later alleged that Daniels had informed her she was “blackballed” in Hollywood. She claimed that this led to her missing out on numerous film opportunities because she chose not to promote Precious during the awards circuit.
“And like, what is this about? You know what I mean? This is crazy. I love you, this is enough,” Daniels told the outlet of easing tensions between himself and Mo’Nique in recent years. “So, not only am I going to apologize, but I’m going to apologize publicly to you, and we’re getting ready to work together. And then we’re going to work together again, how about that?”
In April 2022, during a comedy show she hosted in New York City, Mo’Nique invited Daniels on stage, and the two publicly reconciled in front of the audience. “I am so sorry for hurting you in any way that I did,” Daniels said in the video. “She was my best friend, my best friend. Y’all think that Precious was just — that was God working, through both of us.”
