Can you imagine Empire without Taraji P. Henson lighting up your screen every week as the vivacious ‘Cookie Lyon’?
Can you imagine Cookie Lyon being played by Mo’Nique?
Neither could we — but that was almost the case!
According to Mo’Nique, she was offered the role by Lee Daniels but network executives weren’t having it because of Mo’s rumored ‘difficulty’.
“When he called me up, he offered me the role in Empire as Cookie,” she told Inside Edition.
She says Daniels even sent her a script.
“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.”
Inside Edition’s 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.
For whatever reason, we think it all worked out for the better. We love Mo’Nique, but Taraji as ‘Cookie’ is absolute perfection.
Watch Mo’Nique’s revelation below.
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