Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique revealed that she was originally offered the role of Cookie Lyon (played by Taraji P. Henson) in Lee Daniel’s hit Fox series Empire.
Daniels allegedly claimed Mo’Nique was never considered for the role of Cookie, and the show’s co-creator Danny Strong insisted that she’s never been offered the part.
This morning, during her interview on Sway in the Morning, Mo’Nique brought along proof that she was offered the role of Cookie, in the form of a printed email chain between her and Daniels’ team.
Watch Mo’Nique pull out the ‘Empire’ receipts below:
[youtubevid video=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ARpSWRPSOS0″ id=”ARpSWRPSOS0″ w=”640″ h=”360″]
“You know when I heard Danny Strong had come on the show and was adamant about Mo’Nique was never offered that role and he’d gone on other places and said it. And I tweeted that brother and said, ‘Will you speak as loudly when you understand that you’re telling something that’s not correct?’” Mo’Nique told Sway.
Below are the emails from a woman named Jill, who’s a part of Lee Daniels’ team.
Feb. 18, 2014
Good Afternoon,
Lee Daniels had a conversation with Mo’Nique about his new television pilot for Imagine Tv/Fox called “Empire.” We would like to screen test her for the role of ‘Cookie.’ Please contact us with her television quotes, so that we can start a test, option, deal. We are tentatively looking at Monday, Feb 24 for the screen test.
Feb. 18, 2014
Hello I am following up on my previous e-mail regarding Lee Daniels’ pilot and Mo’Nique’s television quotes. This is a time sensitive matter. Lee really does not want Mo’Nique to miss this opportunity.
An additional email dated March 3 shows that Mo’Nique’s offer to play Cookie ultimately fell through after Daniels realized he needed to get approval from Fox before offering her the part.
March 3, 2014
Unfortunately it’s not going any further for Mo’Nique. Lee fought for her because he thought she would be great for the pilot but studio and network executives insisted on offering the role to Taraji. Thank you so much for providing us with her information. Sorry it didn’t work out. We’re all big fans of hers.
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