Lee Daniels sat down with Raquel from TMZ for her show “Raq Rants” to discuss his resolved issues with Damon Dash, his career, and Mo’Nique.
After the viral video of Damon Dash confronting Lee Daniels over the $2 million he owed him, the comparisons of Daniels and Dash and Mo’Nique and Daniels became clear and rampants.
“I was uncomfortable,” says Daniels. “It was a very uncomfortable thing, and here’s the thing, he made me think. He was hurt, and it made me think. When nobody in Hollywood was giving me money after my academy award, unprecedented with Halle Berry, nobody was giving me money. Damon’s crazy ass was crazy enough to give me money for ‘The Woodsman’ and for ‘Shadow Boxer,’ that investment, the investment for “Shadow Boxer” didn’t pay off… I looked him in the eye and told him that ‘you would get your investment back,’ so what is that exactly? Once you get lawyers talking in your head, you start thinking that it’s an investment, but on the streets, it was my word.”
Daniels also later talked about Mo’Nique: “I think people are confusing the Damon Dash with the Mo’Nique. Damon Dash is completely different from Mo’Nique. Mo’Nique; I fought hard for her to get that job. I wanted her to get that job, and she was paid her money,. She was paid her money from the budget we had. And for her to bad mouth myself, Tyler, and Oprah; it’s disrespectful and it’s wrong, she’s wrong, and she’s out of pocket…”
Recently, Mo’Nique released audio of a conversation with her and Tyler Perry.
Tyler: “If someone had said, ‘Tyler, this is what you need to do right now’; if you had picked up the phone and said, ‘Hey, somebody needs to do something to help me out here …’ ”
Mo’Nique: “You’re talking in Tyler Perry language. I would ask you to let Mo’Nique talk to Madea, because when you start talking in Tyler Perry language, brother, you talk like you don’t get it. [Tyler laughs] Right, n—a, you gotta laugh at it, cause, let me tell you, Tyler, when I watch your movies, I dig Madea, you know why I dig her? You know why I dig her, Tyler?”
Sidney: “Because she could be your mother.”
Mo’Nique: “You know why I dig her? Because that b—- is real to her gut and she don’t give a f— how it come out. She don’t give a f— how it is taken, but everybody know she love you, but she going to tell you the real sh*t. You see, when you stepped away from Madea and you became Tyler Perry the billionaire, this is the conversation we’re having saying what do you want me to do? What do you want me to say? You’re the brother that slept in your car [Tyler laughs] and you needed n—as to fight for you to get you up out the god—- car, — see your momma that you love so dearly, this is when the powers that be — everybody saying, ‘Oh my God it’s Oprah and Tyler,’ — they are the ones that can employ her, why ever would she say it? Because I love those n—as, that’s why I’m saying it…
Visit RollingOut.com for all the released audio, and watch Lee Daniel’s Interview below.