Tiffany Haddish might just be having the best year ever. Since her breakout turn as Dina in Girls Trip last summer, Haddish has been stealing hearts with her talk show appearances and Groupon commercials. She's also just landed a pretty sweet gig on a new TV show, TBS’ The Last O.G.s, which debuts on April 3rd. After a year like that, it didn't come as a surprise when Netflix signed a deal with the comedian.
While the amount of money Haddish is making off her Netflix deal was not revealed, many people on social media were quick to connect Haddish's deal to Mo'Nique's failed Netflix negotiations. Mo'Nique called for a Netflix boycott for what the comedian described as racial and gender bias. Mo'Nique believes she was low-balled after she was offered $500,000 for a comedy special. She believed she deserved the same amount offered to Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, which was $20 million. She also cited Amy Schumer's $1 million deal as proof of the bias.
“I couldn’t accept that low offer, because if I did … I couldn’t sleep at night,” Mo'Nique said of her decision to boycott Netflix back in January. “If I accepted $500,000, what does Tiffany Haddish have coming? If I accept that, what does the black female comedian have coming? Because what they’ll say is, ‘Mo’Nique accepted this and she’s got that.’ So what do they have coming?”
A profile on Haddish was published by GQ today and they asked her about Mo'Nique's protest, as well as her own deal with Netflix.
My business run different than her business. I don't live her life. I don't have that husband of hers. I'm looking at how [Netflix has] opened up so many opportunities for black females and comedy. When my people are dying, that's when you gonna catch me protesting. I'm not gonna protest because somebody got offered not the amount of money they wanted to get offered. If you don't like what they're offering you, just no longer do business with them. If I protest Netflix—what about all the black shows that are on there? What about all the other actors that are working on there? All the Indians, the Hispanics, the Asians. My show, The Carmichael Show, airs on there right now. It ain't on NBC.
Haddish went on to say that she plays "Carmichael Show on a repeating basis. I just turn it on and let it play. I'm like, ‘Hey, let's collect that residual check.’ ”
Despite disagreeing with each other on this issue, it appears that there's no bad blood between Haddish and Mo'Nique. After it was announced that Haddish signed a deal with Netflix, Haddish tweeted that she "already got a deal and I signed it way before [Mo'Nique] said a thing and it's not legend money, but it's enough to take care of my family for a min." Mo'Nique made sure to respond, telling Haddish she did nothing wrong and to keep shining.
It's great to see Mo'Nique and Haddish be able to disagree on a particular issue, but still love and support each other's work. That's the kind of behavior that will help these women - and all women - get what they deserve in their careers.