Mo’Nique and her husbandger (husband/manager) Sidney Hicks once said on their now infamous interview on The Breakfast Club, “We’re going to respect everyone, but we’re not going to over respect anyone.”
Fans of the Academy Award winning actress/comedienne want to know if the things she’s said for years now, which are coming to light—and the people she’s had public conflicts with, who have all had worst weeks ever, is giving her a sense of exoneration.
To that she says, “When this thing first started happening, I remember my husband taking me by the hand and saying, “Mama, we’re going to be okay, and the people are going to catch up to what it really is” and we’re in the phase of the people catching up to what it really is.” Often, she says with our community we get caught up in looks. “If the messenger is not what we think the messenger should look like, we don’t want to hear the message though it might be true.”
Oprah Winfrey is one such person who has come under fire for allegedly being responsible for the inappropriate conditions talent had to deal with while on the set of The Color Purple which is currently in theaters. The former talk show host says the aforementioned was the responsibility of Warner Brothers. The conditions, and the changes, which needed to be made were advocated for by actress Taraji P. Henson.
The film, which had a budget of roughly $100 million has only made an estimated $50 million in theaters. At the Golden Globes where Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Barrino were both nominated, Taraji P. Henson was noticeably absent. The issues were addressed by the rest of the lead cast, and Oprah.
“We all watched those videos with Oprah and Taraji,” Mo’Nique said. “And everything was, “Didn’t I champion for y’all?” and I was like stop it. You didn’t champion for those Black women, for our sisters. What you did was, it was we can treat them like we always treat them, who gon’ check me boo, I’m Oprah Winfrey,” she added. “But yall know everything should have been done when you showed up, and that’s the part we’re missing. And now when you hear our beautiful sisters saying, “yeah but it got fixed,” it’s like we’re making it worse doing that.”
Oprah said on the red carpet for the Golden Globes that she was trending on social media after Taraji’s comments and was confused as to why she was even involved in the conversation about the mistreatment of the cast.
Listen to the full interview with Mo’Nique and Sidney below:
“When you hear these things. This is the treatment of the Black actress. It’s nothing new that the trailers are sub-par. So, when Oprah Winfrey sits at the helm and Taraji P. Henson says, “it’s an honor that we were hand-picked for this movie,” well, if they were hand-picked for that movie, those women should have been taken care of from the moment go,” Mo’Nique said. “There’s no way they should have walked up and there were no trailers. There’s no way there was no food. Oprah got caught. That’s what happened.”
Sidney adds, “And if you look up the title of producer, you’ll find that what Oprah fixed should have already been prepared when they got there. You shouldn’t have to fix that, because it should have already been done.”
Two months ago, while in promotion for The Color Purple, Taraji, along with Danielle Brooks, and director Blitz Bazawule sat down with Oprah’s bestie Gayle King at Sirius XM to talk about the film and the Empire actress got teary-eyed talking about the pay inequality for Black women in Hollywood. Her breakdown set off mixed emotions on social media. Almost immediately, the actress received a groundswell of support, but many referenced Mo’Nique.
The treatment of Black women is the real true Hollywood story—the difference is, this time, it came with tears.
When Mo’Nique came under fire and had been labeled as difficult in the industry shortly after filming and winning the Oscar for Precious, she spoke about the inequality in Hollywood with her husband Sidney Hicks by her side. As her manager he’s negotiated the biggest deals the actress has had throughout her illustrious career. But she didn’t receive any public support from Black talent in Hollywood.
“I had no tears to give. I knew what I was dealing with. I knew what I was facing. When I met Taraji years ago. That’s a beautiful sister and that’s a beautiful soul. When I saw her on that platform breaking down, that pained me to see her going through that,” Mo’Nique said.
When the comedienne was filming The Mo’Nique Show on BET, she’d had Terrance Howard and Taraji on, and while in her trailer she remembers discussing the industry. Mo’Nique says, over 10 years ago, they all believed that you had to keep going until your time comes, “until you get to a place where you say listen, I’ll die before my time comes unless I say something.”
After Taraji’s breakdown, Mo’Nique reached out privately through Instagram’s DM to lend her support because she doesn’t have her number.
Months ago, TMZ’s New York producer Seleah Bussey caught up with Vivica A. Fox to ask how she felt about Taraji’s comments on pay inequality for Black actresses in Hollywood. To that, the Set It Off talent said, “I am very happy, I didn’t have that experience. I love my girls for looking out for each other, but I’m good.”
Many thought the actress was insensitive, or dismissive. Monique said, “Remember when I came out and said “this is not right?” fear is real. It’s like I don’t want to get beat.”
Sidney added, “We don’t begrudge individuals for their fear, but the true fear should be what’s going to happen to us in the long run if I don’t speak up.”
Monique, Vivica A. Fox, and Taraji P. Henson all starred in the cult classic Hair Show together.
It’s been widely said—though not by Mo’Nique, that she’d been blacklisted in the industry. Mo’Nique always denied these claims in the press, most profoundly in an interview with Roland Martin, “because the offers still kept coming.”
But after winning the Academy Award for Precious, the actress’ salary didn’t change. In fact, since Precious, it was as if she was expected to start from the bottom.
Sidney Hicks, believes his wife and client is considered difficult because she’s “offer-only” meaning, she no longer auditions for roles as an Academy-Award winning actress, which many white (and a lot of Black male) actresses (and actors) do.
Of her delivery, Monique, says. “Humbly, it was easier for our community to accept a broken Black woman. And we saw Taraji be broken and bent over and crying. It’s hard for our community to accept a Black woman that has a strong Black man by her side saying unacceptable.”
“While exhibiting strength herself,” Sidney interjects.
We reached out to Oprah’s publicist for a comment, at this time, we have not received a response.
We’ve all heard the old saying, “what’s done in the dark, shall come to light,” but during my interview with Mo’Nique last week, she recalled the famous proverb when asked about some of her issues with Black Hollywood’s titans, including Steve Harvey.
When Katt Williams, during his interview with Shannon Sharpe made claims about Steve Harvey stealing a lot of his comedy routine from other comedians—most notably Mark Curry.
While Mo’Nique would not comment directly on the comments Katt Williams made about the radio hot/comedian, she did have this to say about Harvey:
“That is my brother, but we know the ones who have gotten caught up in this industry and feel like I can say and do what I want to say and you’re not supposed to say anything back to that.”
At the time of Mo’Nique’s now infamous interview with Steve Harvey on his talk show, she and Sidney were negotiating a potential talk show to be produced by the same “people” as Mo’Nique put it, behind “The Steve Harvey Show.”
“When Steve Harvey sat on that show, and he said, ‘Mo, your husband can’t be out here flexing? Like he do. He can’t be who he is. He can’t be who he is. When he come out here.’ Let me tell you what that meant.”
Hicks and Mo’Nique took a meeting shortly before their interview on the show. During that gathering, things took a turn.
“In that meeting,” Mo’Nique says, “they began to tell my husband and I how much they paid Steve Harvey, and my husband said, ‘I’m going to have to stop you right there.’ He said, ‘number one, my wife considers that man her brother, and number two, he’s my frat brother and we don’t play like that. Please don’t share that man’s business with us because if you share his business with us, you’ll share our business with someone else.”
Mo’Nique says that the happenings of the meeting were repeated to Steve Harvey around the time of her interview with him. His response to the people, according to the Oscar-winner, “‘Man sometimes my frat brothers can be a little fanatical man, that ain’t nothing, I’ll take care of it.’”
During the now famous back and forth between Harvey and Mo’Nique, she says that part of why she was repeatedly cut off, had to do with preventing her from revealing what happened during the interest meeting for her potential show.
Hicks revealed, that during Mo’Nique’s interview on “The Steve Harvey Show,” there was a discriminatory formula to which the audience was being screened. “‘They want me to screen how many Black people come on our show,’ Hicks says Harvey said, and adds that Harvey further said, ‘I’m not going to let these folks mess it up for me.’”
Hicks and Harvey are brothers of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated.
“We just again want to say, ‘brother you’re our family, recognize that and come on back, let’s do it the right way. It’s not going to work out in the long run when you’re doing things for people that really are oppressing you and it’s just for money,” Hicks said.
These days, there’s no interview, negotiation, or deal without Sidney Hicks being present. Mo’Nique’s husband and manager has often been to blame for her difficulties in the industry. Mo’Nique says, her most successful deals, most lucrative films, and important moves have been with her manager at the helm.
On “Out Loud with Claudia Jordan,” Mo’Nique revealed that in a private conversation with Whoopi Goldberg, “The Color Purple” actress told her to divorce her husband.
“The Deliverance,” Mo’Nique’s latest project with Lee Daniels is slated for an upcoming release. She stars opposite Glenn Close, Aunjanue Ellis, Tasha Smith, Omar Epps, and Andra Day
We reached out to Steve Harvey’s team for a comment. As of today, no response has been given.