8 Times Comedic Actors Gave Unexpectedly Great Dramatic Performances

Mo’Nique in Precious

Just as “Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx” may have seemed incredibly unlikely to the people who watched Booty Call, so did the phrase “Academy Award winner Mo’Nique” to anyone who glimpsed the trailer for Phat Girlz.

The comedian stripped down to her darkest, most ugly humanity in the role of Mary, the profane, abusive and volcanic mother of the title character in Precious. Lee Daniels’ Oscar-winning drama is one of the most uncomfortable films to break through to the mainstream in recent years, and Mo’Nique shattering performance deserved every award it got.

Not once does Mary feel like a cheap caricature. Instead, she is a woman who has been the victim of terrible circumstances and doesn’t know how to control her rage and misery. Every moment that the actor is on screen, there was palpable danger. This study of squalor often felt unbearable to watch, but Mo’Nique made it hard to look away.

Unfortunately, her powerful performance and an Oscar win didn’t give Mo’Nique the dramatic opportunities that many other actors would have received with the same publicity. Recent comments about how her behavior during the Oscar campaign (and some of Precious’s press tours) soured her relationship with producers and studio heads shines a light at how one’s performance off the screen sometimes matters as much as the remarkable one on it.

Still, it really is a shame that we haven’t seen more of her since that devastating portrayal.