Mo'Nique tells INSIDE EDITION one role she missed out on was playing Cookie on TV's hit show Empire.
Did Mo'Nique lose a starring role in the hit new series Empire because of her reputation for being difficult?
Mo'Nique told INSIDE EDITION that she was offered the headline making part of Cookie, but instead it went to Taraji P. Henson, who has become Empire's breakout star.
Mo'Nique explained to INSIDE EDITION's Les Trent that the show's creator, Lee Daniels, who directed her in her Oscar winning role in Precious, wanted her to play Cookie.
"When he called me up, he offered me the role in Empire as Cookie," she said.
Mo'Nique said Daniels even sent her a script.
Mo'Nique explained, "Maybe four days had gone by, and I hadn't heard anything. So I'm trying to reach out to him to say, what time do I need to be in? Where do I need to be? When he finally returned the call, he says listen, the executives at Fox said that you're difficult."
Trent asked, "Mo'Nique are you difficult to work with? This is Lee Daniels, your friend, saying these things."
"When I hear Mr. Daniels making those comments, he and I know that that's not true," she said.
Mo'Nique said her reputation for being difficult may have come from the fact that she wanted to be paid for promoting Precious at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009.
Lee Daniels told CNN, "There were demands that were made from her, on the Precious campaign that everyone knows about that hurt her."
Mo'Nique said, "If you work a job Monday through Friday and you work 40 hours and then your boss says, 'well I need you to come in on Saturday,' do you do that for free, or is that considered overtime?"
INSIDE EDITION's Les Trent asked Mo'Nique about Christian Bale, whose career has thrived despite an on set screaming fit that made headlines around the world.
"Do you think that there is a double standard when it comes to men and women?" Trent asked.
Mo'Nique replied, "Of course there is a double standard but it's not just in this industry, that's just life, period."
