Mo'Nique Hopes Golden Globe Win Will Raise Molestation Awareness

Winning the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture isn’t just about getting props in the entertainment community for Sunday night’s recipient Mo’Nique. Instead, the comedienne-turned-actress tells Pop Tarts she hopes that her coveted golden statue for “Precious” will bring more awareness to the prevalence of child abuse.

“I think for so long we have swept it under the carpet.  For so long, when it is time to deal with that issue, and when it is time to deal with molestation inside the home, we walk away from it and we don't address it,” she said backstage. “So, oftentimes we live [with] those demons and are not really dealing with it.  So we continue to have a damaged life, and it is time to stop that.  It is time for us to heal and be survivors and no longer be victims.”

And the actress has already seen first-hand how her role as the abusive and psychologically ill Mary Jones has had a powerful impact on viewers.

“I don't know how any audience couldn't think about this issue, because it is universal. It happens everywhere and when you get an Asian brother that  comes up to you after a screening and says with tears in his eyes, ‘What I'm going to say to you  Mo'Nique, is going to sound weird, but I am Mary Jones, and I need help,’ we won.  Because if that one life was changed, we won.”            

But despite her accolades for the role, Mo'Nique has come under fire in recent months for not supporting the film, as she failed to attend key events such as the Toronto Film Festival, New York Film Festival and New York Film Critics Awards. In fact, the criticism grew so strong, it seemed she couldn’t handle the heat backstage after her win at the Critics Choice Awards Friday evening and had to call on her business partner/husband Sidney Hicks to come to her defense.

"She's the first woman of African-American descent to ever have a late-night TV show; she's also a comedienne ... In conjunction with that, she's a mother, she's also a wife,” he said. “She hasn't been at all of them, but she has been at some ... She'd rather portray a bad mother in the movies than actually be one in real life."

Speaking of bad mothers, Mo’Nique also revealed the most challenging thing she’s had to do not only for “Precious” but in the span of her entire career.

“The baby that was really disabled, and when Mary Jones throws that baby and calls her an animal – that was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do in this business and life,” she said. “The moment Mr. Daniels (the director) said, ‘cut’, we had to have a group hug with that baby and her mother and let her mother know, ‘sis, [we're] acting right now.'"