Author Topic: Mo’Nique as the cruel mother in Precious: Me, Campaign? Just Go to the Film  (Read 2129 times)

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/movies/awardsseason/10monique.html?hp=&pagewanted=all


The Oscars
Me, Campaign? Just Go to the Film


Mo’Nique as a cruel mother in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” She said she had to put
aside judgments to play the role.

By DAVID CARR
Published: January 8, 2010

ATLANTA


IT is a convention of the Oscar season that when an actor is among the hopefuls, a phalanx of promoters, publicists and managers go to work, making sure that the star is dolled up and walks miles of red carpets to tell anyone who will listen that she would be “thrilled just to be nominated.”

Mo’Nique has never been much for convention. A stand-up comic from Baltimore, she defined her own version of plus-size beauty, drawing belly laughs along the way by pointing out that it is O.K. to have one. Along with her busy stand-up career, she starred in “The Parkers” for five years on UPN and had movie parts here and there. But it was her role in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” that turned heads. As Mary, the baleful, hellacious mother of Claireece Precious Jones, the illiterate teenager who serves as her punching bag, Mo’Nique created a movie monster who seemed all too real. Her ability to step inside a character of monumental menace has made her a favorite in the best supporting actress category.

Mo’Nique, 42, says she cares deeply about “Precious” and is thrilled to be among the mentioned, but she is not about to reorganize her life or her priorities to get her mitts on an Oscar. “The Mo’Nique Show,” her daily talk show on BET, just began in October, and while other hopefuls are criss-crossing the country for all manner of events, chatting up Oscar bloggers and making sure that everyone knows that they want it, Mo’Nique is mostly here in Atlanta, tending to her show.

She was here at the end of November, in a building in an industrial part of town, getting ready with her “Precious” co-star Gabourey Sidibe for a photo shoot for the Vanity Fair  Hollywood issue. In that sense the Oscar race has come to her, a tribute to the magnetic performance she gave this past year.

It is yet another convention of the Oscar season that the star look casually elegant for any news-media opportunity, but when Mo’Nique met with this reporter, she was simply accessorized by a bathrobe, a headband and the “Precious” director Lee Daniels. She looks great — as she herself often affirms in her stand-up and talk show — but there is no artifice, no fluffing for a newspaper interview. (That will come later for the magazine photo shoot.)

Mo’Nique and Mr. Daniels are a pair, cracking each other up into near helpless laughter at the smallest provocation, and are particularly amused by the keening of the Oscar press because she hasn’t paid proper tribute to the needs of the Oscar-industrial complex. “Deny her a nomination and teach her a lesson,” harrumphed Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere.

Mo’Nique can’t really get with that. Her campaign, if there is such a thing, was her performance, simple as that.

“Anytime I’ve been given an award, it has been because of the performance; what else goes into it?” she said, appearing genuinely mystified. “Look, it makes me appreciative any time someone says they may want to honor your performance. I’m appreciative at any talk in reference to any award, but there’s not much I can do about it now. The performance is done.”

It was, without a doubt, one of the most memorable performances of the year. A. O. Scott, a film critic for The New York Times, wrote that Mo’Nique played Mary with “operatic fervor.”

But isn’t she worried that “they” will think she doesn’t want the Oscar?

“I’ve been asked the question before,” she said, “and it’s like, guys, I also have this show called ‘The Mo’Nique Show’ where I tape six shows a week. I have twins who are 4, so I have babies, I have an amazing husband and a son who’s 19. What I can participate in I’m more than happy to.”

Mr. Daniels makes it clear that the support he needed from Mo’Nique for this film came on the set.

“We are in our bubble, and we pay no attention to any talk about what she should and not be doing right now,” he said. “We’ve been told from the start that no one would see a movie about a young black girl, that it wouldn’t make any money, on and on. Instead here we are, with all kinds of people going to see the movie, and even talking about the Oscars.”

Mr. Daniels is more interested in the opinions of Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey, both of whom signed on as executive producers and supporters of the film. Ms. Winfrey, who was nominated for her 1985 supporting role in “The Color Purple,” sent an e-mail message saying that Mo’Nique is a very legit contender regardless of how busy she is.

“Her performance is so raw and so searing and without a doubt Oscar-worthy,” Ms. Winfrey wrote.

It was all the more remarkable for its audacity. Mr. Daniels said he was convinced that a large, wisecracking comic could portray a character who makes Faye Dunaway’s depiction of motherhood in “Mommie Dearest” seem almost cuddly by comparison.

“Actors want to act,” he said. “Mo’Nique doesn’t act. She saw what this role was about, and she just snatched it. She didn’t outsmart herself like so many actors do.”

Most actors tend to speak in mystical tones about roles, especially difficult ones, but Mo’Nique said her biggest accomplishment was just doing what she was told.

“I so believe in his vision, brother, I’m going there,” she said, looking at Mr. Daniels. “I’m not asking no questions, I’m not asking you why.”

During the interview the film was described as “dark” one too many times.

“I keep hearing, ‘It’s so dark, it’s so dark,’ ” she said, placing her hands flat on the table. “This movie is not dark. This movie is honest, and I think we get that confused. I believe dark is when you see the action movies, and they’re killing 25 people in a room for no reason. That’s dark. Some people,” she said, looking up at the reporter, “can’t deal with that type of honesty, and so they just call it dark.”

As Mary she treats Precious as chattel, looking the other way as her man sexually abuses and impregnates her daughter — twice. And as Precious starts to see a world beyond their cramped Harlem apartment, where she lives a life almost medieval in its punishments, Mary attempts to pull her down at every turn. Mo’Nique said she had to set aside any kind of judgment to realize the character fully.

“You could not tell that story, in my opinion, with actresses who were afraid to look ugly, who were afraid to be vulnerable, who were afraid to be everything on the table,” she said.

In a year of thin supporting roles for women, her performance sticks out. “It goes into that territory where not many actors are willing to go,” said Sasha Stone, the founder of the Web site Awards Daily (awardsdaily.com). “It’s amazing and upsetting and invokes a kind of reaction that few roles do. She stands out because this year no other actress has gone into that zone.”

For many actors there would only be this: this role, this year, this shot at an Oscar. But Mo’Nique says that performing in front of a room full of people and making them laugh remains the most deeply satisfying of her endeavors.

“When you do stand-up, you are in the moment,” she said. “There is no ‘cut, action,’ there is you in this moment, and you get your ratings in that moment. You’re not waiting for numbers, you’re not waiting for reviews, it’s right there in the moment, and it is truly my therapy. Stand-up is my drug of choice.”

If Mo’Nique makes it to the stage on Oscar night, there will not be a long list of agents, managers and publicists to thank. Her multiplatform career is managed by her and her husband, Sidney Hicks, with the assistance of a lawyer.

“She has any number of hats and she is a comedian first,” Mr. Hicks said. “We are enormously appreciative and are trying to understand this process, but you can’t please everybody all of the time.”

On her BET show in November, Mo’Nique hosted Terrence Howard, who was Oscar-nominated for the 2005 “Hustle and Flow” and Taraji P. Henson, who received a nomination for the 2008 film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” According to a transcript from the Oscar blog “And the Winner Is...” (andthewinneris.blog.com) they went to some lengths to explain Oscar dynamics to their pal Mo’Nique.

“It’s a campaign,” Mr. Howard said. “You are the Obamas.”

Ms. Henson co-signed by saying, “It’s like running for president.”

Mo’Nique still seems baffled.

“President Barack Obama had to campaign because he had something to prove: that he could do it,” she said. “Well, the performance is on the screen. So at what point am I still trying to prove something?”


Slideshow:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/01/10/movies/awardsseason/0110-monique_index.html


Published: November 6, 2009
Anatomy of a Scene: 'Precious'

Lee Daniels, the director of "Precious," discusses a scene from the film.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/06/movies/20091106-precious-feature.html
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
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