Warrior Spirit in Comedian Monique
Comedian Monique Hicks said to hell with the Hollywood establishment. She decided that her integrity was worth more than the satanic Hollywood dollar. Monique decided that she was not going to work for free after she had already accepted minimal pay for a multi million dollar film. In 2015, Monique came out stating that she had been black balled by Hollywood.
Prior to the black balling, Monique was the star of the sitcom, The Parkers. She also starred in several movies, with a lead role in Phat Girlz. Monique went on to host her own TV show on BET, which ran from October 2009 to August 2011.
Even though she got her start as a comedian, Monique is most know for her role in the 2009 film, Precious. Monique accepted and was paid $50,000 by the film’s director Lee Daniels. According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed over $63 million and was given a $10 million dollar budget. She says she was asked to promote the film for free, but she and her husband and manager, Sidney Hicks, declined to do so. Monique won an Oscar for her performance in Precious. According to Monique and Sidney, Monique was quickly black balled and labeled “difficult to work with.”
In 2018, after about 5 years of Monique being under the radar, she called for a boycott against Netflix. This came about after she was offered $500,000 to film a Netflix comedy special. This offer offended Monique, as a few of her fellow comedians were offered millions. Although Monique’s most notable achievements were from her acting roles, she felt she should get paid as much as the current and in demand comedians.
In February 2019, Steve Harvey interviewed Monique, his so called “friend,” on his TV show. On the show, Steve tells Monique that “this is a money game.” Monique mentions integrity. Steve responds, “If I crumble, my children crumble. I cannot, for the sake of my integrity, stand up here and let everybody that is counting on me crumble so I can make a statement.” He tells Monique that he hates what’s happening to her and that he “loves” her like a “sister.” If he loves her so much why didn’t he call her during her time of need years ago? Instead, he criticized her on his radio show.
Monique says in the interview, “Now I said no to some very powerful people.. .the difficulty came in when people that looked like me, like Oprah, Tyler, Lee Daniels and I got to put my brother Steve on the list,” she added. “Y’all knew that I was not wrong. Each one of you said to me, ‘Mo’Nique, you’re not wrong.’ And when I heard you go on the air and say, ‘My sister burned too many bridges, and it’s nothing I can do for her now,’ Steve, do you know how hurt I was?”
People may not agree with the way Monique went about things. During one of her comedy shows in 2017, she told Perry, Daniels and Winfrey to suck a private part. Steve told Monique that she she should apologize. He also expressed his distaste for the way she handled her disappointment.
The interview with Steve Harvey showed the warrior spirit in Monique. Monique actually stands for something. In Monique and Sidney’s recent podcast Sidney stated they were offered $300,000 to 500,000 as an apology from Tyler Perry (the executive producer of Precious), but Monique and Sidney declined. Instead, they suggested Tyler keep the money and just clear Monique’s name.”
During the podcast Monique says “I watched my father raise cowards in my brothers. He raised these black men not to stand up. I watched my father go silent when shit got really heavy and really deep. My fathers was a therapist, but he couldn’t talk to his own family. “
She says, “I watched my mother deal with me and my sister and not have the conversation mothers should have with their daughters. There are decisions me and my sister both made and my mother said absolutely nothing. Numerous men went into our bedrooms. My mother never said, what are y’all doing? My father never said, what are y’all doing? When you’re raised with a family of cowards, and you’re raised in a family where it’s OK to be violated, that molded me so that nobody would violate me again.”
Whether Monique knows it or not, she is making history. She will be known as the comedian/actress that stood up against the Hollywood establishment as she refused to compromise her integrity.
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