Academy Award winning actress and comedianMo’Niqueis calling for a boycott of Netflix after slamming the streaming giant overgender and race bias. The comedian was reportedly offended after Netflix offered her $500,000 for a comedy special when several other comedians were offered a lot more money. Mo’Nique won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2009 for her role inPrecious, but apparently Netflix doesn’t go off of résumés, according to the comedian.
Over the weekend, Mo’Nique took to Instagram to reveal herboycott of Netflixand her reasoning behind doing so. She was reportedly offered $500,000 for astand-up comedy specialto be streamed and she believes that to be unfair since Amy Schumer received $11 million and both Chris Rock and Dave Chappell both received $20 million for their stand-up specials. Mo’Nique was quick to note that Schumer later renegotiated after she learned that Rock and Chappelle were making nearly twice as much as her, to $13 million.
When Mo’Nique brought up the discrepancies that Amy Schumer had previously brought up in public, Netflix responded that they thought that what they were offering the Academy Award winning actress was what she was worth. In addition, when Mo’Nique brought up her résumé, the streaming company said that it didn’t factor into their decision. Comedian Wanda Sykes replied to Mo’Nique’s post by revealing thatNetflixhad offered her $250,000 to do a comedy special, which only angered Mo’Nique even further.
Wanda Sykes' big reveal influenced Mo’Nique to make another post to Instagram, asking how the Netflix math made any sense at all and called for a boycott. Both Mo’Nique and Sykes have been in the comedy game a lot longer than Amy Schumer, which is common knowledge, so why did Netflix only offer them a fraction of what they have given past comedians taking part in their specials. Sykes and Mo’Nique were collectively offered $750,000, which is a far cry from what Schumer was able to command from Netflix and light years away from what was given to Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle for theircomedy specials. When Mo’Nique questioned further about Schumer, Netflix replied that she was just coming off of a big summer movie.
It seems that Netflix was indeed making their decision based off of Amy Schumer’s résumé, which is contradictory to what they told Mo’Nique. Especially when they added that Schumer had been able to sell out two nights at Madison Square Garden. Mo’Nique won an Academy Award and has a had a drastically different career than most, but she has been in the comedy game for a long time, appearing in the Queens of Comedy and many standup tours. However, it isn’t clear if this particular offer was for the recently announced 15-minute stand-up specials by Netflix. If that’s the case, the boycott calls may have to get called into question. you may check out the videos calling for the boycott of Netflix below fromMo’Nique’s Instagramaccount.
