'Empire' Cast & News: 'Mo'Nique' Reveals She Initially Offered Role of Cookie on Fox Show, Co-Creator Denies Her Statements [Watch]
In a recent interview with Access Hollywood, Academy Award-winning actress Mo'Nique revealed that she was originally offered the role of Cookie in Lee Daniels' Fox hit series, "Empire."
Mo'Nique insisted that before Taraji P. Henson was offered the role, Lee Daniels had given the role to her and later took the role away from her.
"Mr. Daniels offered me the part of Cookie, and I have the emails and the sides to go along with it, and what he said was, 'I'm new to this TV thing. This is just a technicality ... you have the role," Mo'Nique recalled. "Okay. I have the emails. Well, four days have gone by because I didn't receive a phone call or another email for the location of where I was supposed to go to do this screen test."
But despite Mo'Nique's claims, "Empire" co-creator, Danny Strong is denying that Mo'Nique was ever offered the role of Cookie.
Strong recently took to Twitter and suggested that Mo'Nique was lying. He insisted that the role of Cookie was always meant to be Henson's, E! News reports.
Check out Strong's tweet below.
Mo'Nique's shocking claims to Access Hollywood comes on the heels of her candid interview with the Hollywood Reporter, in which she claimed to have been blackballed in Hollywood since winning her Academy award for her role in Lee Daniels' "Precious."
Mo'Nique revealed that it was Daniels who called her and broke the news that she had been blacklisted as an actress in Hollywood.
"I got a phone call from Lee Daniels maybe six or seven months ago," she said. "And he said to me, 'Mo'Nique, you've been blackballed.' And I said, 'I've been blackballed? Why have I been blackballed?' And he said, 'Because you didn't play the game.' And I said, 'Well, what game is that?' And he gave me no response."
Daniels has since appeared on CNN to reveal that it was Mo'Nique's outlandish demands while promoting "Precious" that landed her on the Hollywood blacklist.
However, Daniels still praised Mo'Nique for her acting abilities and encouraged her to "play ball" and be more flexible in attempt to ease her way back into Hollywood's good graces.
Check out Daniels' CNN interview below.
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