Academy Award Winning Actress, Mo’Nique “Blackballed” After Winning Oscar
Former star of The Parkers shocked the world when she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the character’s abusive mother in Precious. Now the Academy Award winning actress reveals that after winning an Oscar she was “blackballed” in Hollywood.
You would assume that after an Oscar win you would typically “more respect, choices, money” but, according to Mo’Nique Hollywood told her she “didn’t play the game” and blacklisted her from the film industry.
I get asked that question a lot: How did the Oscar change my life? What it did was that it gave me a new reality. And it let me know that an award wasn’t going to change my life — that I had to be in control of changing my life. I’ll ask you: How do you think the Oscar was supposed to change my life?
What I understood was that when I won that Oscar, things would change in all the ways you’re saying: It should come with more respect, more choices and more money. It should, and it normally does. Hattie said, “After I won that award, it was as if I had done something wrong.” It was the same with me. I thought, once you won the award, that’s the top prize — and so you’re supposed to be treated as if you got the top prize.
I got a phone call from Lee Daniels maybe six or seven months ago. 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.
Ultimately, it sounds like Mo’Nique has no clue why she was blackballed from Hollywood. But, it does appear that a lot of producers, directors, and filmmakers have turned their back on the Academy Award winning actress.
But, Mo’Nique is not the only actress who struggled to find work after winning an Oscar.
Dianne Wiest, the 66-year-old actress, told the New York Times that she is facing money issues due to lack of high paying work. West earned Oscars for her supporting roles in 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994’s Bullets Over Broadway, both movies were directed by Woody Allen. However, after landing those roles she was only getting offered to play “a nice mom, and that’s it. That’s all that ever came, except in theater.” “I have to move out of my apartment soon,” Wiest said of her struggle to cover her rent.
Note to actors: Don’t think the world is going to be handed to you, even if you win the greatest prize in acting.
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