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Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson just shared that Mo’Nique has been cast as the newest member of his Starz series Black Mafia Family. Jackson has been openly lobbying for Black Hollywood to give Mo’Nique her flowers ever since he saw her stand-up comedy show during Super Bowl weekend, and the duo posted a short Instagram clip of the actress/comedienne revealing her character’s name. “My name is Goldie,” she says with a chuckle. “You know who the f*ck I am.”
Mo’Nique has long been vocal about the hostility she’s faced from Oprah, Lee Daniels, and Tyler Perry since her Oscar-winning performance in the 2009 film Precious. “No, I was not blackballed. I was white-balled by some black d**** who had no balls,” she said at a Mother’s Day weekend comedy show two years ago. “So, thank you, Mr. Lee Daniels. Thank you, Mr. Tyler Perry. Thank you, Ms. Oprah Winfrey… It would kill me not to say the real s***. You are not paying me equally. You are not treating me fairly. Y’all could suck my d*** if I had one.”
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Forever championing the underdog, however, Jackson has been on a campaign to re-establish Mo’Nique’s stature within Black Hollywood. “I’m sure Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry would not want to continue to allow there [sic] influence to damage @therealmoworldwide career and this has gone on for way to long,” the Queens, NY rapper posted to his IG page in March. “So now would be a great time to apologize because i’m [sic] gonna put her back on.”
The very next day, Jackson disclosed on IG that he’d spoken with Perry, and the Madea franchise creator told him that he never told anyone not to work with Mo’Nique. In fact, according to the post, Perry said that Oprah was presently considering Mo’Nique for future projects, but he was glad that Fiddy was going to hire her, too.
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Lee Daniels and Mo’ have since patched things up on their end as well. Last month, he surprised the actress at her “Mo’Nique and Friends: April Fools Day with The Queen of Comedy” show in New York City. She was visibly shocked by the moment. The two embraced and cried on stage as they publicly renewed their friendship that evening.
“Sometimes in life you get caught up,” Daniels explained. “I am so sorry for hurting you in any way that I did, Y’all, and she was my best friend — my best friend. Y’all think that Precious was just … That was God working, through both of us.”
And Daniels has also now hired Monique to replace Octavia Spencer in his upcoming Netflix project, Demon House. According to Deadline, Spencer had to bow out because of timing conflicts with her Apple TV+ series, Truth Be Told. Production on Demon House is scheduled to begin June 2022.
