Mo’Nique and Steve Harvey Argue About Her Being 'Blackballed' by Hollywood After Oscar Win

Mo’Nique and Steve Harvey clashed on camera over her claims she was shut out of Hollywood after winning an Academy Award in 2010.

During an interview on Harvey’s Steve talk show on Wednesday, the 51-year-old comedian and actress said she and her husband and manager, Sidney Hicks, “got labeled as difficult” for pushing back when the producers of Precious asked her to do more Oscar campaigning.

“I said one word,” said Mo’Nique, who ultimately took home the statuette for Best Supporting Actress. “And that was ‘no.'”

“I said no to some powerful people,” Mo’Nique continued. “I said no to Oprah Winfrey, I said no Tyler Perry, I said no to Lee Daniels and I said no to Lionsgate. The difficulty came when people that look like me, like Oprah, Tyler, Lee Daniels — and I gotta put my brother Steve [Harvey] on the list — y’all knew I was not wrong. Each one of you said to me, ‘Mo’Nique you’re not wrong.'”

Daniels directed Precious while Winfrey and Perry were producers on the film.

The comic added she felt betrayed when Harvey publicly criticized her without speaking to her first: “When you went on the air and said, ‘My sister burned too many bridges and there’s nothing I can do for her now,’ do you know how hurt I was?”

Harvey, 62, pushed back. “You and I had this conversation,” the talk show host replied. “I thought you went about it wrong. I felt you had done yourself a disservice by the way you chose to go about it.”

Mo’Nique’s comments come nine years after she refused to campaign for a scene-stealing role as an abusive mother in Precious during awards season and was criticized by Daniels for her “demands.” After winning the Oscar for the film, she began her acceptance speech by saying, “First, I would like to thank the academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics.”

Despite her victory, Mo’Nique has long maintained she was punished for her actions, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 she was “blackballed” for refusing to “play the game.” It isn’t the only time she has publicly called out Hollywood power players.

In January 2018, the Baltimore native called for a Netflix boycott “for gender bias and color bias” after the streaming giant offered her $500,000 for a comedy special — a relatively small amount compared to the multi-million dollar payouts given to Amy Schumer, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle each earned.

The Phat Girlz star told Harvey her family suffered from the loss of opportunities after the Oscar flap and failed Netflix deal, but that he and other prominent African Americans in Hollywood had not stood by her publicly.

“When you called me with the morning show on the phone, I said to you, ‘Steve, my family is suffering behind this and y’all know I did nothing wrong. My husband did nothing wrong.’ But none of y’all in real time was strong enough to go public and say, ‘We can’t throw our sister under the bus,'” she said.

Harvey said he hoped the pair could put their difference behind them. “What I want, really, is for you to come through because I know who you really are,” he said.

“I hate what’s happening to you. I hate what they’re saying that’s not true. I want them to know that you’re caring, that you’re a great mother, that you’re an incredible talent. I don’t like the fact that you’ve been blackballed. You’re too talented to have to worry about all this, ‘Where’s the next [paycheck] coming from?'” he said.

“What we need to do to [is] move forward and fix this” Harvey asked, calling for an end to the dispute. “These people owe you an apology. You owe those people an apology. Then we could move forward.”

The talk show host offered to help her repair bridges she may have burned.

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“I’m going to try and arrange — I’m going to do my best — to get the conversations that need to be had between you and these people so you can hear from them,” he told her. “I’m going to then ask them will they say it publicly, for the benefit of everybody, so you can get the release that you need. Then I’m going to ask you to tell these people and apologize for some bashing [that you did]. When everybody can come to that, that’s a chance for us to move [forward].”

Whatever happens, Mo’Nique has found success away from the movie business. She currently has a residency in Las Vegas at the SLS Hostel and Casino — becoming the first black female comedian to score such an opportunity.

And she says she has few regrets about her career choices. In an interview with the Washington Post last week, the comedian said her fans are women like her, who don’t — and won’t — fit the mold.

“I… think about the little girl on the Greyhound bus coming to a place called Hollywood with no idea what she’s coming into,” she told the newspaper. “For me, that little girl who’s not here yet, she means everything to me. That’s why I won’t back down or back up.”