Oscar winner Mo’Nique criticises Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Academy Awards boycott

OSCAR winner Mo’Nique has criticised Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s plans to boycott the Academy Awards, asking if it’s because they weren’t nominated.

Actor Mo'nique celebrates her Oscar for a Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for film 'Prescious', based on ...

OSCAR winner Mo’Nique has criticised Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s plans to boycott the Academy Awards in protest against the lack of black nominees.

Mo’Nique, who previously won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2010 after starring in Lee Daniel’s Precious, has been an outspoken critic of the awards in the past.

But she has now questioned the Smiths’ timing, asking if “we are standing up now cause it’s in your backyard?”

The Smiths spoke out last week in protest at the lack of black nominees for the 88th Academy Awards after Will was snubbed for his performance in Concussion.

Mo’Nique criticised the boycott as being about a trophy instead of focusing on the “bigger picture”.

“They’ve already won. Will is one of the few multi-million dollar actors that is of colour, he is one of the few,” she said in the radio interview.

“About ten years ago, the word was he was getting $20 million a film. If you’re getting $20m a film, ya’ll already won. You’ve won generationally.

Winners ... Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have been criticised for protesting about an award and not the wage inequality in Hollywood. Picture: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

“So do we stand up over a gold-plated trophy or do we stand up and say we need equal wages and equal treatment? And are we standing up now cause it’s in your backyard? The Oscars are no different to last year, the Oscars has not been different for what... the 89 years it’s been around?”

Mo’Nique also questioned why the Smiths, as well as other African-American production companies owned by Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey, haven’t done more for their own community.

“We do need to do more of that, the question now becomes why haven’t we?

“Those production companies have been around. Again, we only make noise when it’s in our backyard.”

Star turn ... Gabourey Sibide and Mo'Nique in their award-winning 2009 film Precious.

“We do need to do more of that but we also need the quote unquote power players to make the noise, because when people call me and ask me my opinion, does it really matter? There’s not a button I can push. There’s not a decision I can make in that realm,” she said.

Critical of the awards in the past, Mo’Nique also spoke about the pressure she felt to “campaign” for her award.

“I didn’t do it the way people thought I should do it — they thought I was disrespecting the awards, I was disrespecting the game because I didn’t go out and campaign for the trophy,” she said.

“And I said from day one, why am I even campaigning for anything? I’m not running for anything, nor did I ask for the award. You guys nominated me for it and I am appreciative but that’s as far as I am going with it.”

When speaking about the boycott, Will said it felt like Hollywood was “going the wrong direction”.

“There’s a regressive slide towards separatism, towards racial and religious disharmony and that’s not the Hollywood I want to leave behind,” he said.