Mo’Nique has landed the lead role in upcoming independent film Mother Trucker.
The Oscar-winning actress and comedian will play a mother with anger management issues, who steals her suddenly deceased husband’s trucking haul to provide for her daughter. She soon discovers the truth behind her husband’s death, and sets out for vengeance against his racist killers.
“I knew this was unique from the jump, because of the countless scripts we’ve read together, the only other time my husband said ‘this is special’ was for a little movie named Precious,” Mo’Nique said in a statement to Variety.
“Never in my 30 years of being in entertainment have I seen a film with a badass black woman that has the balance of funny, drama, and action while addressing the challenges women of color face everyday, like Mother Trucker,” she added.
Related Story: Steve Harvey Set to Relaunch Daytime Talk Show on Facebook
The action-adventure is written by former HBO executive producer J. Oyer Tomas.
The role comes after Mo’Nique filed a lawsuit against Netflix in November, alleging racial and gender discrimination over a “low-ball offer” of $500,000 for a new stand-up special.
Mo’Nique called for a boycott of Netflix in January 2018, saying the streamer offered her much less money than other comedians for similar work.
Netflix released a statement denying the allegations and said it will fight the lawsuit.
“We care deeply about inclusion, equity, and diversity and take any accusations of discrimination very seriously,” the company said. “We believe our opening offer to Mo’Nique was fair — which is why we will be fighting this lawsuit.”
Mo’Nique’s last big screen role was in the 2016 film Almost Christmas. In 2015 she played Ma Rainey in the HBO TV movie Bessie about legendary blues performer Bessie Smith.
