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Today we celebrate the birthday of Mo’Nique, a singular talent in the largely homogenous Hollywood pool of actors and actresses. Last year at this time we wondered aloud “Where the hell is Mo’Nique?”; now that another year has passed, the question remains.
According to the IMDB, Mo’Nique appeared in exactly two films this calendar year: Interwoven, a “drama interweaving thirteen true life stories to create one compelling tale of the fragile ties which connect us all,” and Bessie, an HBO movie about the legendary blues singer in which our gal Mo’Nique was seventh-billed (Queen Latifah was the lead).
This is wrong. Borderline criminal, even.
Is there any film or television program that wouldn’t be improved simply by adding the presence of Mo’Nique? Answer: No. She admitted earlier this year that she has been blackballed ever since winning the Academy Award for her searing performance in Precious, which, in a cruelly ironic twist, probably only served to extend her blackballing sentence further.
So, as a means to try and get the powers that be to recognize how much Mo’Nique has been missed, Decider’s own Jaclyn Kessel has taken the liberty of inserting her into this year’s most interesting films. As you’ll see, she would be just as welcome in a blockbuster like Jurassic World as she would be in a riveting lesbian drama like Carol.
Hollywood, please do something about this. We don’t want to have to resort to writing this column again next year.
MORE MO’NIQUE, PLEASE!
(Lee Daniels, we’re looking at squarely at you. You run Empire. You have the power to make this happen. Squash whatever beef you have and give Mo some work!)
