Mo’Nique Shares Secrets Of Precious Film And Motivation Behind Her Weight Loss
Mo’Nique (born Monique Imes on December 11, 1967) recently stopped by the Ellen Degeneres show to discuss her spectacular role in the film Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire.
Mo’Nique is an American television hostess, comedian and actress who is originally for Baltimore. She is best known by many for her long term role in The Parkers.
The vivacious actress was Ellen’s first guest, bringing a clip of the film where she play’s Mary Jones, the abusive mother of Precious. This movie has a lot of Oscar buzz around it.
(Image of Mo’Nique with husband at Precious Film - DailyCeleb.com - All rights reserved).
Mo’Nique appeared on Ellen wearing a gorgeous dusty rose fitted V neck at-the-knee dress. The dress had beautiful draping throughout the waist showcasing Mo’Nique’s slim hourglass figure. Her hair was coiffed in a sleek to-the-shoulder lush bob hairstyle.
Mo’Nique’s base hair color was a right milk chocolate brown and she had a side-swept fringe with lighter caramel highlights. The fringe had lots of texture and movement and offset her stunning eyes.
Ellen immediately told the actress “first of all you look fantastic, fantastic and you’ve got so many good things going on, the BET show, this movie”. The talk show hostess also complimented Mo”Nique on her acting performance and said “you are brilliant in this movie. I know you’re hearing this over and over and over again, but man oh man you are brilliant. You’ve got to be proud of that performance.” Mo’Nique said “thank you baby. Proud, very proud.”
Ellen asked “where did you, have you met Mary Jones before? Where did you pull that (character) from?”
Mo’Nique said “you know, I do know Mary Johns and it’s a story I told. And the first time I told it was in Essence Magazine when I did the cover, I think maybe a year ago. And I was molested, as a kid by my oldest brother Gerald so when Lee Daniels called me and first told me about this movie and he sent me the book and I’m like ‘oh my god Lee, what is this?’
Mo’Nique said “Lee Daniels told her ‘when I say action I need you to play a monster’ and so I remembered those moments with my brother Gerald, and he was a monster to me, so whenever he (Lee Daniels) said action I became that monster.”
When Ellen asked Mo’Nique how the movie was “so therapeutic” for her to play such a monsterous part and be on the other side the actress said “in all fairness, and I have not spoken to my brother in years, but it allowed me not to hate him, it allowed me not to be angry any more and it allowed me not to be the victim, because Mary Jones is mentally ill. It’s a sickness and it’s an illness even though she was very cruel and she was evil and mean. When you really got to listen to this woman you saw that she was mentally ill.”
She continued “and often times we throw it away, we simply throw it away and don’t deal with it. And to show mental illness like that and not in an institution and in a straight jacket it’s mental illness in it rarest form. So that movie for me really allowed me to say “no judgment” cause you don’t know people’s situations and circumstances.”
Mo’Nique said the movie is directly tied to “when you dig into it, again the brilliance of Lee Daniels.” She said “he was so fearless Ellen that we all had to make the decision that we would be fearless along with him.” Mo’Nique said “because when you have a director that says not only am I am going to move to the edge of this cliff, I’m jumping, well we got to jump too, cause then it don’t match because the director’s like let’s go, go, go and we’re like ohhh wait a minute how are they going to look at us if I do this. He was so fearless in his vision and would not waiver and would not back down .”
Mo’Nique said this movie is going to “we are all very product of this movie and we’re proud of what it’s going to do, and it’s going to save somebody’s life.”
Mo’Nique talked about her two twin boys who are 4 years old, “David and Jonathan”. Mo’Nique explained that playing the role, even though she is a mother in reality, she never took her role as the mean Mary Jones home with her. Her husband told Mo’Nique “mamma, leave it there and don’t judge it. When he says cut, leave it on the floor. So I never took it home with me I never went home and was like I’ve got to be deprogrammed. Because we left it right there.”
She said “whenever Mr. Daniels said ‘cut’ we partied.” Mo’Nique said “it became a party baby, we laughed, we joked, we played because we knew what we were doing and it’s like get me up outta of this, say cut quickly because I have to giggle now. So we played hard.”
Mo’Nique was also in awe of the actress playing Precious. “She was amazing, she was so believable, some people thought it was shot as a documentary.”
Ellen referenced how bad all the actors allowed themselves to look as bad as possible in the film and what an ugly film it is to watch. She noted “and you look fantastic, you look beautiful.”
Ellen pointed out Mo’Nique had lost weight. The actress after discussing whether she had lost “closer to 50 pounds or 40, 41-42″ explained why she lost weight to begin with.
Mo’Nique laughed and said “but I still got it. I still got my girls baby. Still got my girls.”
The actress said “when I started losing weight I was 262 pounds. And when I was 262 pounds please know that I thought there was nothing wrong with that. That when I looked in the mirror I saw a beautiful sex kitten looking back. I didn’t look in the mirror and say ‘oh god’. I saw nothing wrong with me. Until one day my husband was getting out of the shower and I was in the mirror, naked, admiring the kitten and me (she growled), I was having a good time with myself, when he said ‘how much do you weigh’ and I said 262 pounds, just as nice. And he said ‘mamma that’s too much and I want you for a lifetime.”
She paused and said “well at that moment it connected. And I’ll never be a small women Ellen, look at my head. It’s big. I’m not ashamed of it Ellen, it’s big, It’s a big head.”
Ellen was speechless and mumbled “it’s a sexy big head.” Mo’ Nique said “a sexy big head. And my shoulders match it. They match the big head.” Mo’Nique was wild and boisterous and said “I have a sexy big kitten head”
Ellen in her own funny way said “Mo’Nique when I look at you I see a sexy big kitten head…or it could be the pills.”
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Tags: 1967, December 11, Mo'Nique, Monique Imes, Precious film, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, The Parkers, Weight Loss
