Lee Daniels Talks 'Forgiveness' in Reconciliation With Mo'Nique: 'Wasn't That God Working?'

For filmmaker Lee Daniels and actress Mo'Nique to repair their friendship, it practically took a miracle.

To promote his upcoming Netflix film, The Deliverance, which stars Mo'Nique, Daniels was interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter and discussed their reconciliation. The last project Daniels directed that featured Mo'Nique was the 2009 drama Precious. During the promotional rollout for that film, the two had a dispute over Mo'Nique’s refusal to promote it.

This decision led Daniels to tell Mo'Nique that she would be "blackballed" from the entertainment industry. As a result, the Oscar winner also had similar fallouts with Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry. After nearly 15 years of estrangement, Daniels publicly apologized to Mo'Nique onstage in 2022, breaking his silence on their rift.

Two years later, Daniels continues to stand by his apology.

"Wasn’t that God working?" he told THR regarding Mo’Nique’s appearance in The Deliverance. "First of all, part of me trying to find my higher power was also understanding what that meant. And that meant forgiveness, that meant apologizing, even if I didn’t understand what I was apologizing for. I had to understand that she was hurt, and that is my sister, and that I love her."

He continued, "And like, what is this about? You know what I mean? This is crazy. I love you, this is enough. So, not only am I going to apologize, but I’m going to apologize publicly to you, and we’re getting ready to work together. And then we’re going to work together again, how about that?"

In a March 2023 interview with THR, Mo'Nique shared that the public apology was planned, with Daniels agreeing to it in a phone call. It was in the same conversation that Daniels offered her the role in The Deliverance.

"He was like, 'OK, so I want to talk to you about this part.' I said, 'Lee, we can’t talk about a part until we talk.' And he was like, 'I know,'" she recalled. "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.'"

She continued, "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.'"

"I don’t know if it’s ever been done in history — that a big Hollywood director came out and apologized to an actress for a wrongdoing," Mo'Nique said.

The Deliverance is now playing in select theaters and debuts on Netflix Friday, August 30.