The U’Niquely Charming Actress Mo’Nique

At a time when body image is still a determiner of success in show business, comedian and actress Mo’Nique has embraced her plus size and used it to her advantage

In this 2003 interview Mo’nique talks about her book Skinny Women Are Evil.
Get your copy of Skinny Women Are Evil by Mo’niqueAs an Amazon Associate, Now I've Heard Everything earns from qualifying purchases.

You may also enjoy my interviews with Delta Burke and Wendy Williams

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Photo by 82nd Academy Awards

#comedians #humor #weight #self-confidence

Fat means fabulous and thick. That's who I am.
But no, I when I look in the mirror, I don't see.
Oh, she's, she's big. I see beauty.
Actress, comedian Monique Today on Now.
I've heard Everything. I'm dual Thompson.

(00:25):
Are you a skinny woman? Well, if you said yes, some
other women may actually consider you evil.
No, not really. It's a it's an exaggeration that
once fueled the comedy of the performer known professionally
as Monique. Now Monique is of course, A+
sized woman. She makes no apologies for it.

(00:46):
In fact, she's turned her plus size into an asset, taking
advice she says she once got from Martin Lawrence, who
reportedly told her that that she should just ignore people
who tell her what she can't have.
So as a result, Monique went on to win an Academy Award.
She's been nominated for Emmys and Grammys and many other

(01:07):
awards, and she's won many otherawards.
She's had her own talk show. She's been in dozens of movies.
She starred on TV's The Parkers as Nikki Parker.
And in 2003, she wrote a book called Skinny Women Are Evil.
She and I met one day in the spring of 2003 to talk about it
in just a moment. Our conversation.

(01:29):
Over a 30 year span, national radio personality Bill Thompson
did over 10,000 interviews with people who had a hand in shaping
our culture and our society. Here is one of those interviews.
Enjoy. So here now from 2003, Monique.
Skinny women are evil, that's what it is.

(01:50):
You you don't. You don't mean like truly evil
do. You well you know what skinny
women are evil. Well it actually came from my
stand up comedy but I said something different than women.
I put in another little word. Y'all can figure it out for
yourself. But you know in the book we have
a thinner meter. We have the skinny evil ones,
the medium Mamas and the cool thin ones, and you pick out who

(02:11):
you want to be. Now it it is, I gather, fairly
easy to tell who's who. Oh yeah, see a skinny evil 1
she's like from an 8 to A10 in the Richter scale.
On the scale she is the one thatwill go to the buffet with you,
but I'll only go at one time andget a salad.
Skinny evil one. She gets full off of airplane
peanuts. Skinny evil 1A medium Mama is

(02:33):
kind of in between 1 hamburger up, she's on the big girls side.
One walk around the block extra,she's on the skinny evil side.
So she's in between now. A cool thing when she is thin,
she knows that, but she will go to the buffet with you.
Every time you get up, she'll get up.
That's a cool thin one. Because maybe she's been
somewhere else before. I mean, maybe she's.
Cool thin ones are big girls in their heart.

(02:55):
They're fat girls in their heart.
That's a cool thin one. They really, they can't help it.
They just can't gain the weight.But they have a big grandmama.
Their Mama might be a fat girl, their auntie.
So they big girls at heart. Remember, they were big when
they were younger. Yeah, yeah.
No, normally cool thin ones havealways been thin, but they
admire the big girls. It's like, wow, you don't even
move when the wind blow hard. How do you do?

(03:20):
That and if, if if somebody comes up to you and says when
are you due, that's not a good sign that.
Is the evilest, skinniest thing I know.
You know, I wanted to say something else, but I didn't.
That's just like, what do you do?
I'm not pregnant. Oh, I thought you It's like, how
cruel is that? Just evil.

(03:42):
Or not offering you dessert because they.
Thought you must be on a diet. Right.
But it's 10 people in the room. All nine of them get a piece of
pie. But you, that's you just grabbed
the whole damn pie. Nobody's going to eat none of
this pie. This is kind of an in your
Facebook, isn't it? Yes, very direct.
But for people that know me, that's who I am.
Very in your face, very direct, very aggressive, very

(04:02):
opinionated, very here I am. See me.
That's who I've always been. You know, you know, I actually
saw a review of this book, a serious review of this book is,
you know, it's it's quite entertaining, but she she really
doesn't offer any practical advice.
It's just, yeah, see, you're nota doctor.
You're not a psychiatrist. This isn't meant to be like a
textbook. I am a funny lady.

(04:24):
Our goal was to make you laugh. And we actually do give advice.
We give advice on shopping tips,we give advice on dating, we
give advice on sex. We give advice on all of that.
So whoever wrote that interview and whoever made that review,
you didn't read the book, you just saw the cover.
And you know what they say? Don't judge a book by its cover.
Nana Nana, Boo Boo to you. Review that.

(04:48):
You you you could say the same thing about about individuals.
You can't judge a. Book by its cover you.
Can't. You got to go inside.
You got to see what's inside. You got to go into the mind and
the heart. If you see me walking down the
street, don't just assume. Say hey, how you doing?
I want to get to know you. And that's for all the men out
there. I am single right now.
So if you see me walking down the street.

(05:08):
You know, you know, here's the thing.
Last time I interviewed an actress who had a book about her
size was Delta Burke. All right, beautiful actress,
You know, I met her in person. I met you in person.
You guys aren't big. I mean, this is the thing.
I mean, what? What is the deal with your big?
You're not big. Here's here.
Here is what it is society says big.
Society says the standard of beauty is a size 2.

(05:30):
I'm 220 lbs, a size 2224. I'm a fat girl and I'm OK with
fat. Fat means fabulous.
And Victoria, that's who I am. But no, I when I look in the
mirror, I don't see, oh, she's, she's big.
I see beauty. That's all I see.
And because I see that, you can't help but to see that.
If I was £400 you would see beauty.
Then you would say, OK, well, she's a big girl, but first she

(05:52):
would see beauty. That's all.
I mean, we get that all the time.
Why? You're not that big, but it's
OK. You see beauty, when I first
walk into the room, that's all you see.
I said that. I'll write that down.
Write that down. I tell you, you 2 are pretty
good collaborators, yes. Yes, you know what, actually,

(06:12):
Sherri a McGee, you must say theA because that's her name,
Sherri A McGee. She was really my my voice.
You know, she writes for the Parkers and she totally captured
who I am and that's why I was socomfortable with her.
And I trusted her with the book,you know, because she would say,
well, what do you think about this?
Don't do that. I trust you.
You know who I am, you know, andshe was getting so to the point

(06:35):
and maybe I was like, oh, how you know me that?
Well, I mean, she was, I mean, she was just brilliant.
She was brilliant, you know, so I thank her so much for being a
part of that and and making another dream come true for us,
you know, but she was brilliant.Plus your heart now.
You. You at one point, I guess, had
an agent who didn't think that you could really be a success.
I love the fact that you know your information.

(06:56):
Yes, we did Bill, and I hope that agent is listening.
But you know, we've actually hadtwo agents that didn't think my
first agent I ever had when I moved to to Hollywood, she said.
I need to be honest with you. You'll never be the star.
I mean, you're big and you're black, you know, and you'll
always be this the funny cousin,the funny girl next door, but
never the sexy star. That's just not what Hollywood's

(07:19):
about. I've never called her since that
day. I don't have to.
She sees the Parkers. She sees Showtime at the Apollo.
I'm sure now she's seeing skinnywomen are evil.
So I don't need to call her, youknow, because she sees it.
And I'm sure she's kicking herself in the butt because she
could have been getting 10% of all my money.
But then we had a literary agentwhen we first, when you know, we

(07:41):
asked Sherry to 1st write the book with us.
We had a literary agent and Sherry wrote the treatment.
I'm sorry, Sherry and McGee wrote the treatment and we sent
the treatment to our literary agent.
His exact words were no one would buy this.
This isn't good. If I mean, we can do the book,
we have to get a new writer. We can't use her.
So I said, you know what? Either we're going to sink or
swim together. We're either going to make a
whole lot of money or we're going to go broke.

(08:02):
We trust each other and we're loyal to each other.
So we hung in it together. And a year later, here's the
book. Skinny women are evil, selling
like hotcakes. And crowds of people waiting in
the lobby to see. Yes, yes.
I'm going to say this for the record.
You had more people in my lobby today than I have ever seen in
that lobby to meet a single author.
That's a blessing. That's just.
And you know what still freaks me out?
When people say author, I'm like, I'm are we authors?

(08:25):
Did we write this? Book by definition, you are.
Right, right. I'm loving it.
And when people say, you know, I'm, how's it going to be an
author? I'm like, who was author?
I don't know who because it justhasn't clicked yet.
It has not clicked yet. Well, you'll appreciate this
from being for Baltimore. We were playing one of those
guessing games one night, you know the board games and the guy

(08:47):
the guy was giving who says namefamous Arthur.
So we're saying like B, you know, Arthur Godfrey and he and
he meant to say Arthur I. Love it, I love it.
So you're, you're, you're a Baltimore girl.
I mean, this is, this is coming,coming home for you being in
this area. You know what?
It's always, I don't know, because I'm still in the space

(09:09):
where I pinch myself and I'm still in this space and it's
like, wow, look at this, I'm still in that space.
And when I come home and I see the love and appreciation and
the support and I'm like, y'all,it's just me.
It's just me. But but they're like, but look
at you, you know, look at what you did for us.
And and I take none of the credit.
I thank God every day like God, thank you for using me as the

(09:31):
vessel. Thank you for for whatever
reason, using me to get the wordout there.
I appreciate that. And when I say the word, I'm not
this big religious, you know, I'm not that person, very
spiritual. But when I say the word to have
big women say to me, thank you for allowing me to love me
again. That is the most incredible
feeling other than seeing my son's eyes that I've ever

(09:53):
experienced. It's it's just incredible when
we've gone to like 7 different cities and have women crying, I
mean crying, just saying thank you.
Thank you for letting me know I'm OK.
Words can't even describe that. I can't even tell you how that
makes me feel. It's like, wow.

(10:14):
After this short break, Monique talks about switching from
comedy roles to dramatic roles. You know, AI is not just for 22
year old coders. A lot of us older adults are
drawing on our life experience to find unique and creative ways
to use AI at home or at work. Got an AI success story you'd

(10:35):
like to share? Tap the link below to visit our
YouTube channel, AI After 40 andLet's Keep learning together.
Now back to my 2003 conversationwith Monique.
You also. Talk in the book about the
betrayal you felt when Oprah dieted.
Well, you know, I, I think all big women did.

(10:57):
And, and because when we saw Oprah on TV, we were like, wow,
she's black, she's big, she has a big Afro, she's intelligent.
She and she was law. Whatever Oprah said was the way
it was. Even to this day, whatever she
says, you do it because Oprah said it.
So we felt like finally somebodyout there is representing us.

(11:18):
I mean, she lost the weight because that's what she wanted
to do. So I'm not mad with her at that
for that. But big women were like, Oh,
well, something is wrong with me.
You know, if Oprah said if Oprahdid it, something's wrong with
me. Not that that was the message.
She was saying she wanted it forherself.
But because TV is so powerful, we took it like, I didn't
personally. I was like, OK, Oprah, girl, you

(11:39):
just made room for me. Thank you.
But I mean, the the mass said, wow, what's wrong?
You know, And when she when she started coming back to being
another fat girl again, we were like, all right, girl, come on
back. We're going to give you a big
girl call back. We love you all.
Yeah. Well, let me ask you, I mean,
your book, I mean, it is a terribly funny book.
I really, I've enjoyed this book.
But you do make you make some serious points in here.

(11:59):
And one of them is of course, that you can be a star.
Now, can you be a star of something of a dramatic series?
I mean, you mentioned Cameron Manheim, who does terrific work
on the practice, but most of theother actors and actresses you
mentioned. Are.
Funny, they're, they're somehow the, the foil that even if
they're the lead, it's somehow it, it's, it's a fun.

(12:19):
We, we laugh when we see John Candy, you know, or, or, and we
laugh when we see Queen Latifah,you know, and then the new Steve
Martin and the Queen Latifah movie.
Can you be? Can you have a serious leading
role? Well, I just purchased the
rights to head in Mcdaniel's life and I'm getting ready to do
that. And it's very serious.
So you know, when people say, can we I can show you better

(12:40):
than I can tell you? You know, yes, we can be
dramatic, but let. Me just no, no, no.
No, no, I'm just saying for the for the listening audience, we
can be dramatic, but I like being funny.
I like bringing light to your heart.
I don't want you at the end of the night say, oh, God, oh God,
everybody died and then no one loved us.
I like at the end of the night when you turn your TV off, you

(13:00):
say, oh, that felt good. We have so much to cry about in
this day that I want you to havesome light.
I want you to be able to say, oh, thank you so much.
The Rat Pack were nothing but light.
They were entertaining. Not one fat boy in the group,
but they brought light to your heart.
You know what? They were so popular and they
said around so long because people felt good.

(13:22):
They felt good when they watchedthem.
They felt good when they said goodnight.
That's what I want. I want you to feel good when I
said goodnight, baby, see you later.
I want you to feel good. Not you.
Oh, geez. Oh, I'm gonna go to the bridge.
I can't believe it. No.
So you won't be doing any Lifetime television for Women in
Danger movies. If I do, I'm going to be the

(13:42):
funny one. Say you shit laughing I see on
the bridge. Get down from that bridge, girl.
Come on, let's have some Popeye's chicken.
Oh, you have, you have, I got totell you, you have in the back
of the book the guide for the airport food, which is something
that has long been needed in this country.
Yes, because you know what I'm going to tell you when you get
off the plane and you're hungry,you don't have time to say,

(14:04):
could you tell me where Wendy's is in that book?
I'm telling you what terminal, what gate, how many steps you
need to walk to get to the gate and catch.
You need a little buggy for themto drive.
You're going to be too tired. Yes.
And whoever wrote that review, he doesn't give good advice.
Damn it. What is that?
That is the the best advice everin any book.
You have your own clothing line.Yes, bless your heart.

(14:27):
Yes. You know, actually we're we're
in the process of revamping it because what we did in the
beginning was we went over the Internet and what I found was a
lot of letters that I got said, Hey, Monique.
And they were from mainly African to work American women
saying this doesn't fit me right, You know, and I was
getting less from women that were size 20 twos and 20 fours.
They were the same size, but they were cut differently.
The proportions were different. So right now we're in

(14:48):
negotiations with a major department store to put the
clothes in the department store.That way you can go try it on.
So we like to try it on. We like to see how it feels and
fits instead of going on the Internet.
So we're revamping. A lot of us are that way.
I mean, you know, it depends on the manufacturer.
It depends on the the the cut and the style.
And you know, buy the same identical thing from two
different stores, it fits. Totally.

(15:09):
Different. It's totally different.
That that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
Well, best of luck to you in doing it.
So now. So all right, you're doing a
movie, you know, the, the the you got the clothing line, you
got the airport food thing. What else are you?
What else are you involved in? Well, I start my movie, the
first lead role that I have made, the 1st in Beauty Shop and
then July the 1st I go into production for a movie called

(15:29):
Fat Girls, which I'm also the lead.
And you know what Bill? Right now, so much is happening
and so many things is happening.And Shia and I had a
conversation and she's like, youknow, when it's meant for you to
have it, it's effortless when it's meant for you to have it.
Because even with this book, youknow, we went to, we went to New
York and we did like 10 pitch meetings.
And by the end of the day, everybody was bidding for this

(15:51):
book. We, you know, we didn't know it
was going to happen like that. But when it's meant, it's
effortless. When it's meant to be yours,
it's effortless. You know, so, so much is
happening, but it's it's like goddess in here.
You asked me for this. I want to give it to you.
Let me see how you handle it. And you also seem to personify
with all the success books. They say, you know, just believe

(16:12):
in what you know, believe in youvisualize your goal and go for
it and the confidence that surrounds you, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah. But you're living it.
And that's what I tell people. People say, well, you know, it's
so hard. And I say my name is Monique.
What makes it so hard? I didn't come from a rich
family. I didn't come from where my
parents can make a phone call. I bust my behind and my, you
know, my, my belief was always only have a plan A, never have a

(16:36):
Plan B, never have a fall back plan because it makes it easier
to give up on your plan A. So my son wants to be a tennis
player. Then you better play tennis
every day. I don't believe in backup plans.
If something happens, we'll dealwith it.
But right now you want to play tennis every day on a tennis
court. That's your make it happen.
If you want to be a. You better be a cheerleader.

(16:58):
Just don't put that skirt on. Don't you do it.
But yeah, I I just believe in going for what you want.
You know what, Bill? I am so easy.
You you covered everything you did.
And, and I, I would just say to all about troops, come on home.
You know, I honor you guys, I honor you women.
I honor the fathers and mothers and I honor the children that

(17:21):
are here that are, that are sending their parents letters
saying, hey, come on home. Because we don't even realize
what they're going through day-to-day.
We don't even realize a lot of times what they're fighting for,
but they're over there fighting for their country that they
believe in. So I honor you guys, come on
home, let's have a cocktail and a bottle of laughs.
And some Popeyes. And some Popeyes and Krispy
Kremes and some Dunkin' Donuts. The honey dips.

(17:47):
Monique will be 58 next month. Her most recent film role was in
2024, the supernatural horror film The Deliverance.
Now you can get your copy of Skinny Women Are Evil by Monique
by tapping the link in our show notes by clicking the link in
the description below. If you're watching this on
YouTube or by going to our website heardeverything.com, we
may earn an Amazon Commission ifyou make a purchase.

(18:10):
Heardeverything.com is where he can also find by 1998
conversation with Delta Burke. They made me feel because I had
put on weight that I had, you know, murdered busloads of
children or something. And it's I've Simply put on
weight. Why?
Why were they carrying on so much about it?
And my 2003 conversation with Wendy Williams.
It was said in the New York Daily News Wendy Williams is a

(18:35):
walking exclamation point. I said I think I like that.
And of course, we post new episodes of Now I've Heard
Everything every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
And you can find us wherever youfind podcasts.
And thank you so much for listening.
Next time on Now I've Heard Everything.
He may be best known for all of the characters he plays on The
Simpsons, but it turns out he's also pretty good novelist.

(18:59):
My 2006 conversation with Harry Shearer.
I'm a comic writer. I tend to view folks as comic
characters. I'm not a a big believer in
heroes. I I think we're living in a time
that kind of proves me right. That's the next time.
Now I've heard everything. I'm Bill Thompson.