It still surprises me a little bit that Mo’nique ended up winning the Oscar for Best Support Actress in 2010. She won for her role as the abusive mother in Precious, and while her performance was widely acclaimed, Mo’nique’s Oscar campaign (or lack thereof) left something to be desired. Mo’nique very publicly stated that she would not campaign or do any behind-the-scenes work (attend screenings, shake hands, kiss babies) and that she wanted her performance to speak for itself. That strategy ended up winning her the Oscar, but it also alienated her from much of Hollywood. She was seen as someone unwilling to play the game. She was seen as rude and unwilling to pay her dues. Post-Oscar, Mo’nique hasn’t been doing much. And now, five years later, Mo’nique is talking about how she was blackballed from Hollywood.

Mo’nique claims that she now knows why the offers didn’t star flooding in after her big Oscar win in 2010. The former star of The Parkers, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the title character’s abusive, domineering mother in Precious, writes in an essay in the Feb. 27 issue of The Hollywood Reporter that director-producer Lee Daniels clued her in just a few months ago.

Noting that an Oscar win “normally does” lead to “more respect, choices, money” in the business, Mo’Nique writes, “But I got a phone call from Lee Daniels…And he said to me, ‘Mo’Nique, you’ve been blackballed.’ I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because you didn’t play the game.’”

After steamrolling the competition throughout the 2009-10 awards season, Mo’Nique famously didn’t campaign for her Oscar, going on to say in her acceptance speech that she was grateful to the Academy “for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics.”

“I said, ‘Well, what game is that?’” her THR piece continues. “He gave me no response.”

People who would say that she’s “difficult,” “tactless” or “tacky” would “probably be right,” the actress writes. “That’s why I have my beautiful husband because he’s so full of tact. I’m just a girl from Baltimore. But being from that place, you learn not to let anybody take advantage of you.”

Mo’Nique also writes that she was offered the role of Forest Whitaker’s wife in Lee Daniels’ The Butler, a part that ultimately went to Oprah Winfrey; a role in the Daniels-produced Fox hit Empire; and the role of Richard Pryor’s grandmother [also now set to be played by Oprah] in the upcoming biopic Daniels is working on—but, she adds, “they all just went away.”

In response to Mo’Nique, Daniels said in a statement to THR: “Mo’Nique is a creative force to be reckoned with. Her demands through Precious were not always in line with the campaign. This soured her relationship with the Hollywood community. I consider her a friend. I have and will always think of her for parts that we can collaborate on, however the consensus among the creative teams and powers thus far were to go another way with these roles.”

[From E! News]

Do you think what happened to Mo’nique was unfair? Or was she justly labeled a “difficult” personality, not a team player, not worth the effort? I think she does have a chip on her shoulder, still, to this day. But lots of celebrities have difficult personalities – why does Mo’nique get blackballed and the other “difficult” actors get to work? Is it a racial thing? Or is it just an issue with an unpleasant personality mixed with being seen as “not having proved herself yet.” My take: she got in her own way during the 2010 Oscar season and she’s still getting in her own way. While she’s probably being honest in this essay, this isn’t going to win her any fans in the establishment.

Photos courtesy of WENN.