Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Lee Daniels’ new horror movie “The Deliverance” marks a reunion for the director and his Oscar-winning “Precious” star Mo’Nique following a yearslong feud.
Despite the animosity that stemmed from Mo’Nique’s public criticism of Daniels and “Precious” producer Oprah Winfrey, the actor never doubted that they would work together again. “He’s my friend,” Mo’Nique told me at the “Deliverance” premiere in Los Angeles on Wednesday night at Netflix’s Tudum Theater. “You ever have somebody in your life where your chemistry is right there but something happened and it pulls you apart, but you don’t forget the heart of the person?” she continued. “You don’t forget the purity of this person and you say, ‘I’m willing to fight for this friendship.’” Daniels recalled their first day on set of “The Deliverance.” “It was emotional,” he said. “It was like, ‘We had been fighting all this time about what?’ But then it was just like, ‘OK, bitch, say your fucking line.’ She was like, ‘OK, Mr.
Daniels!’” “The Deliverance,” inspired by true events, tells the story of Ebony (Andra Day), a single bi-racial mother with three children (Anthony B.
Jenkins, Caleb McLaughlin and Demi Singleton) who moves her recovering addict mom Alberta (Glenn Close) into their new house to help take care of the kids.
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