Mo’Nique’s success is built on fearlessness
BALTIMORE - Describing how her character brutalizes her daughter in “Precious’’ and at one point endangers the life of her infant granddaughter, Mo’Nique says, “That was rough for me. But the moment the director says, ‘Cut,’ you leave it right on the floor.’’
In this break-out year for the popular comedian and instant BET talk-show star, Mo’Nique’s fearlessness in the movie, as well as her professional equilibrium, should make her a sought-after dramatic actress and maybe an Academy Award nominee.
Mo’Nique first tried stand-up comedy on a dare, in 1991, and killed at a local club.
While working as a customer sales representative for MCI, she became a regular at area comedy clubs and then a repeat performer on TV’s “Showtime at the Apollo’’ and “Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam.’’
She soon had her own Baltimore showcase and restaurant, Mo’Nique’s, as well as a slot cohosting a morning radio show. By 1999, she had won a part in the UPN sitcom “The Parkers.’’ She followed that with a slew of popular big-screen comedies.
When most crowd-pleasing comedians get raw, they go in for purple high jinks. Mo’Nique does something completely opposite in “Precious’’: She dips into a primal ooze of malformed emotions and delivers it to viewers without dilution.
Mo’Nique had already worked for director Lee Daniels, playing a character coincidentally named Precious in Daniels’s hit-woman movie, “Shadowboxer.’’
“I never worked with anyone more respectful in my life,’’ Daniels says. “And with that comes the ability for me to be very, very truthful with her and for her to see and reveal . . . so much.’’
Daniels is an ebullient fellow, but tears start streaming down his face as he says, “I can’t describe the trust I have for her. She makes me feel very important, and it shows on screen. We become one.’’
Mo’Nique credits Daniels’s candor for her performance. His description of Mary clicked with her immediately.
“When he told me, ‘I want you to be a monster,’ I knew I could do that, because I knew a monster. The monster was my oldest brother. My brother was a molester, so when Mr. Daniels told me to be a monster, I knew what a monster was. When he said, ‘Action,’ that was it.’’
But she didn’t take the specifics of her characterization from sibling horror stories. Her performance is a genuine feat of acting imagination. She gives Mary Jones a hyper-awareness around her daughter that’s skin-crawling in its intimacy.
“As angry as I was with Mary Jones,’’ she says, “I still felt sorry for her.’’
