Iconic film producer and director Lee Daniels sat down with The Parkers actress Mo’Nique to celebrate their long-standing friendship ahead of their most recent film release.
In an Instagram post on July 23, Daniels reflected on their relationship and praised her work in The Deliverance, which will be released on August 30.
The post featured an image of the pair sharing a meal on their first press day for the film.
“At dinner here on our first press day for The Deliverance, it got me reflecting on the 25-year friendship I’ve had with the actor @therealmoworldwide,” Daniels wrote. “Like any REAL friendship, it’s one that’s stood the test of time. AND BOY HAVE OUR TIMES BEEN TESTED.”
He continued recounting their journey together, “From our first film, Shadowboxer, to our second film, Precious, into #TheDeliverance, she amazes me at the depths of where she goes. It’s like she has a bottomless pit of emotions to play with. I can’t wait for you to see her as you’ve never seen her. She’s Cynthia, the concerned kickass social worker. Out Aug 16 in theaters, Aug 30 on @netflix.”
Daniels and Mo’Nique famously feuded for 13 years after Mo’Nique refused to go overseas to promote Precious unless she was provided with additional compensation from Lionsgate. But according to the Hollywood Reporter the two finally reconciled after Daniels helped independent filmmaker Courtney Glaude edit his new film, The Reading, which starred Mo’Nique.
“It’s so beautiful,” Daniels said of the piece. “And in that footage I saw the woman that I worked with some 13 years ago. But I realized how much I loved her. And I realized how talented she was.”
That realization caused Daniels to pick up the phone and collaborate with his old friend.
“Not only did I want to reach out to her,” he explains, “but I realized I wanted to work with her again. It’s crazy, sometimes, how life is.”
Mo’Nique was thrilled when she heard from her old friend but demanded a public apology before she would work with him again. “He was like, ‘OK, so I want to talk to you about this part,’” Mo’Nique explained. “I said, ‘Lee, we can’t talk about a part until we talk.’ And he was like, ‘I know.’ And then we had a real conversation. That was the moment that he said, ‘I’m going to apologize to you and your family for anything I’ve done to hurt y’all.’ And what I said to him was, ‘I appreciate that and we are grateful for the apology. But because it happened publicly, you have got to apologize publicly.’ And you know what he says? ‘Tell me when and where.’”
Mo’Nique finally garnered that apology when Daniels stood in front of a crowd a few days later at Staten Island’s St. George Theatre and said, “I am so sorry for hurting you in any way that I did. She was my best friend. My best friend. [Precious] was God working through both of us. And we’re going to fuckin’ do it again.”
Daniels’ new horror film The Deliverance is based on a notorious supernatural case in Indiana and will be on Netflix and in theaters. The true events of Latoya Ammons inspire it.
According to the Netflix synopsis, the film follows “Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mother fighting her demons, moves her family into a new home for a fresh start. But when strange occurrences inside the home raise the suspicions of Child Protective Services and threaten to tear the family apart, Ebony soon finds herself locked in a battle for her life and the souls of her children.”
In addition to Mo’Nique, the movie stars Andra Day, Glenn Close, Omar Epps, and Caleb McLaughlin and is “a genre-defying take on darkness, possession, and finding a higher power.
