Five years after winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in “Precious,” Mo’Nique is returning to theaters in “Blackbird.”
The independent drama centers on a deeply religious high school student in a small Mississippi town, who struggles with the fact that he may be gay.
Mo’Nique plays the teen’s mother and also executive produced the film with her husband Sidney Hicks. She told TheWrap that director Patrik-Ian Polk cast Mississippi college student Julian Walker in the lead role because no top African-American talent in Los Angeles would sign on for the project.
“He went the regular route initially,” Mo’Nique said. “He went to Hollywood and said, ‘I’m looking for a young black male actor to play a gay character.’ Everyone was afraid of it because of what the movie is and what the movie shows.”
The film’s director has previously said the actors who turned the drama down cited anti-gay religious convictions, including one who insisted “Jesus told me not to take” this part.
Their concern centered around the film showing Walker’s character Randy Rousseau losing his virginity to a girl, but later realizing his true love is a man. It includes several graphic love scenes involving two men.
Despite those concerns, Mo’Nique told TheWrap she saw nothing wrong the film’s depiction of gay love. “When you really watch it and you see these two people, who just happen to be two men who are making love, it no longer becomes graphic. It becomes what is real.”
But she admitted those realistic scenes may have been a turnoff for some Hollywood actors.
“I think because of what it may have said or what it may have looked like. ‘Oh you kissed a man. Oh you’re lusting for a man’… However, when you watch Julian’s performance, that baby may save lives with other young men and women wanting to say ‘this is who I am.'”
Walker, who is openly gay, told TheWrap he welcomed the role because it mirrored his life.
“There were a lot of things that I could relate to with Randy,” he said. “Coming out to my family and religious issues that I dealt with when I was a child… I thought I was over it. I thought I wasn’t still holding on to memories or feelings of how I felt. But doing the film, it was like therapy getting over it.”
Mo’Nique believes ultimately things worked out because 22-year-old Walker was the right choice.
“He’s just refreshing and he takes your breath away because he’s so brave and he didn’t know to be afraid… I used the same words for Gabourey Sidibe and I have the same feeling about ‘Precious’ and Gabourey Sidibe that I have about ‘Blackbird’ and Julian Walker.”
“The 100” actor Isaiah Washington co-stars along with Terrell Tilford and Kevin Allesee. Washington, Polk, Keith Brown and Carol Ann Shine produced the film.
Mo’Nique says the team behind the movie hopes it will change attitudes and encourage anyone struggling with their sexuality to be themselves.
“We just felt like it’s time to let people know it’s okay to live in your truth with no apologies.”
“Blackbird” arrives in theaters on April 24 and will later be shown on Robert L. Johnson’s Urban Movie Channel
20 Years of Vanity Fair 'Hollywood Issue' Cover Controversy (Photos)
2014
Six of the 12 actors on the 2014 “Hollywood Issue” cover are black – including Academy Award nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o from “12 Years a Slave;” Michael B. Jordan, who had a critically acclaimed performance in “Fruitvale Station;” Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, who played the legendary Nelson and Winnie Mandela in Weinstein Co.’s “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom;” and Chadwick Boseman, who starred as Jackie Robinson in “42″ and appears opposite Kevin Costner in the upcoming “Draft Day.”
Also on the cover are powerhouses Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Jared Leto; indie darling Brie Larson of “Short Term 12;” “Wolf of Wall Street” star Margo Robbie; and Léa Seydoux of “Blue Is the Warmest Color.”
2013
From Left to right: Ben Affleck, Emma Stone, Bradley Cooper, Eddie Redmayne, Quvenzhané Wallis, and Olivia Wilde.
2012
Rooney Mara, Mia Wasikowska, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Elizabeth Olsen, Adepero Oduye, Shailene Woodley, Paula Patton, Felicity Jones, Lily Collins, and Brit Marling
2011
From left: Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, James Franco, Jennifer Lawrence, Anthony Mackie, Olivia Wilde, Jesse Eisenberg, Mila Kunis, Robert Duvall, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Garfield, Rashida Jones, Garrett Hedlund, and Noomi Rapace
2010
From left: Abbie Cornish, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, and Anna Kendrick
2008 (*Vanity Fair did not publish a "Hollywood Issue" in 2009, instead focusing on the inauguration of President Obama for the March cover)
From left: Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Jessica Biel, Anne Hathaway, Alice Braga, Ellen Page, Zoë Saldana, Elizabeth Banks, Ginnifer Goodwin, and America Ferrera
2007
From left: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Chris Rock, and Jack Black
2006
From left: Scarlett Johansson, Tom Ford, and Keira Knightley
2005
From left: Uma Thurman, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Claire Danes, Scarlett Johansson, Rosario Dawson, Ziyi Zhang, Kerry Washington, Kate Bosworth, and Sienna Miller
2004
From left: Julianne Moore, Jennifer Connelly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst, Diane Lane, Lucy Liu, Hilary Swank, Alison Lohman, Scarlett Johansson, and Maggie Gyllenhaal
2003
From left: Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Ewan McGregor, and Matt Damon
2002
From left: Kirsten Dunst, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Connelly, Rachel Weisz, Brittany Murphy, Selma Blair, Rosario Dawson, Christina Applegate, and Naomi Watts
2001
From left: Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Vanessa Redgrave, Chloë Sevigny, Sophia Loren, and Penélope Cruz
2000
From left: Penélope Cruz, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Marley Shelton, Chris Klein, Selma Blair, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Sarah Wynter
1999
From left: Adrien Brody, Thandie Newton, Monica Potter, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Stiles, Leelee Sobieski, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Polley, Norman Reedus, Anna Friel, Omar Epps, Kate Hudson, Vinessa Shaw, and Barry Pepper
1998
From left: Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, Natalie Portman, Djimon Hounsou, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Claire Forlani, Gretchen Mol, Christina Ricci, Edward Furlong, and Rufus Sewell
1997
From left: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Claire Danes, Renée Zellweger, Minnie Driver, Alison Elliott, Jada Pinkett, Jennifer Lopez, Charlize Theron, and Fairuza Balk
1996
From left: Tim Roth, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rapaport, Stephen Dorff, Johnathon Schaech, David Arquette, Will Smith, and Skeet Ulrich
1995
From left: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, Patricia Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julianne Moore, Angela Bassett, and Sandra Bullock
1 of 19
The 2014 edition of the magazine’s “Hollywood Issue” features the most racially diverse cover ever – with six black actors – following years of criticism over monochromatic covers
2014
Six of the 12 actors on the 2014 “Hollywood Issue” cover are black – including Academy Award nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o from “12 Years a Slave;” Michael B. Jordan, who had a critically acclaimed performance in “Fruitvale Station;” Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, who played the legendary Nelson and Winnie Mandela in Weinstein Co.’s “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom;” and Chadwick Boseman, who starred as Jackie Robinson in “42″ and appears opposite Kevin Costner in the upcoming “Draft Day.”
Also on the cover are powerhouses Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Jared Leto; indie darling Brie Larson of “Short Term 12;” “Wolf of Wall Street” star Margo Robbie; and Léa Seydoux of “Blue Is the Warmest Color.”
