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• Mo'Nique's official site
• Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance
• Phat Girlz
• Hair Show official site
• Profile of Mo'Nique

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Tavis: (Laughter) I'm laughing already. I was trying to say,I'm pleased to welcome Mo'Nique to this program, but I'm laughing too hard. The busy actress and comedienne can be seen next week in the comedy, "Phat Girlz.' This summer, her Oxygen series, "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance" returns for its second season. More on that in a moment. First up, here is now a scene from "Phat Girlz.'

[A film clip is shown]

Tavis: All right, Mo'Nique. Tell me what I just saw there.

Mo'Nique: Oh, you just saw the most precious thing probably in that movie, but it was hot as hell. We were in Palm Springs and it was -

Tavis: - that fellow was Nigerian. Ain't no Nigerians in Palm Springs.

Mo'Nique: Well, that's where the cameras were, okay, when they said, "Action.' It was 116 degrees and, at that moment, I said, "God, whatever you need me to do, I'm going to do because I don't want to go to hell. If it's anything like this, if it's hotter than this, I don't want to go to hell." So I'm going to live real right, Tavis.

Tavis: (Laughter) You got me laughing already and I promised Sheila, my makeup person, the last time you were - two things. One, I sweat through my makeup, I was laughing so hard, so don't make me look bad.

Mo'Nique: I will try.

Tavis: Don't make me laugh too hard this time.

Mo'Nique: All I can say is, I'm going to try.

Tavis: Okay.

Mo'Nique: Now listen. I can only keep this leg up here for a little while, so talk quick because it's cramping in my thigh.

Tavis: (Laughter) Let me make my second point then right quick about your last visit. The last time you were here, you crossed that leg. You been losing weight and you crossed that leg and said, "Tavis, watch this." You crossed the leg. I told somebody today that I didn't know what was next. You were going to put it behind your head or -

Mo'Nique: Well, putting it behind my head is how I got pregnant, so I'm going to keep it right here. Right here, Tavis.

Tavis: (Laughter) All right. You can put it down. I don't want your leg to cramp. Speaking of the last time you were here and getting pregnant, the whole world knows now that you've had twin boys and I'm going to meet them when we get off the set.

Mo'Nique: David and Jonathan.

Tavis: You tell me it's their first time being out of the house with you at work. I can't believe you're going to meet them backstage in a second. How the babies doing?

Mo'Nique: They are wonderful. Jonathan is now about twenty pounds and David is about seventeen. Jonathan looks just like me. If you feed him, he cool. He don't cry or nothing. Just feed him, like his mother. Just a little bit of food will do her. But David, he's the one that says no, pick me up, don't put me down. David is the little feisty one.

Tavis: So you got your twins.

Mo'Nique: I got my twins.

Tavis: And two older boys?

Mo'Nique: Yes.

Tavis: So you got four boys?

Mo'Nique: Yes.

Tavis: So speaking of God, what's God trying to say to you with four boys?

Mo'Nique: I think he's giggling. That's what I think he's doing because he gave me two at one time. When they came in and said it's twins, I said, "God, you're tripping." (Laughter) But that's what he did to me.

Tavis: (Laughter) You've got four boys.

Mo'Nique: But you know what? I think the difference now is because it's a fifteen year gap. Fifteen years ago, there was no money and very little patience because when you don't have no money, you don't have a whole lot of patience. You say, "Sit down, sit down!" But now, fifteen years later, there's a little bit of money and I'm much older. At thirty-eight, things ain't that heavy no more. It's like, "Okay, baby, they're all right. They can write on the walls." At your house. Don't write on my damn walls (laughter).

Tavis: (Laughter) Go to Tavis's house to write on the walls, yeah. But I was just thinking, the good news is, now you can spend all your time just doing your hair. With boys, at least you ain't got to do that hair thing.

Mo'Nique: But that's why God didn't give me girls because he'd said, listen, you're combing it out. Now that's enough. They told me one was a girl. They said one was a girl, so I went out that day and bought clothes 'til she was about six. Then when I went back, they said they made a mistake. I didn't want my baby to be no drag queen, so I had to take all them clothes back. A three-month old drag queen. Can you imagine?

Tavis: (Laughter) Although these days, I saw a "60 Minutes" story a few weeks ago - well, I won't talk about that. Anyway, some of you all saw that story, so you know what I'm talking about. That said, tell me about this movie, "Phat Girlz.'

Mo'Nique: "Phat Girlz" is a comedic love story, but it's the true story of a fat girl's walk. You know, oftentimes in Hollywood in a fat girls' story, they put somebody in a fat suit so when they say "cut", the suit comes off. Well, as you all can see, my suit didn't come off, baby. When they said "cut", it stayed right with me in the hot ass Palm Springs 116 degrees. That wasn't a fat girl territory. Not Palm Springs, baby. Just in Alaska, please.

Tavis: (Laughter) Fat girls do not belong in Palm Springs.

Mo'Nique: No. That's not our place. And the thing of what the movie is, like you go through their struggles and their fight just being accepted, just wanting to be accepted. She wants to be a fashion designer and everybody says, no, no, just 'cause you're a fat girl. She wins this trip from a diet that she was on. She goes to Palm Springs and meets this beautiful African doctor. That's what I said when I saw him. Got a little dangerous for me.

Tavis: Yeah.

Mo'Nique: Because I see how people fall in love. Like I see how love affairs happen on movie sets 'cause that man was - a couple of times, I had to say, "cut, cut, cut, I can't handle this, I can't look at him no more today." But what I really loved about him, he got the fat girl. Like he got it, because his touch was very gentle. What he said was very soft and very sweet. He touched my stomach. It was just beautiful. So it's a beautiful movie and, when you walk out of there, you're going to feel like "I'm cool with me, I'm cool with me." Every fat girl in the world on April 7 will feel like, "I'm cool with me."

Tavis: Isn't that really, though, been your calling card as you move around the country? I know you have to hear this because I hear this about you, so I know that you must hear it, that people who are plus size really love you and dig you for making it possible for them to be comfortable seeing you as an exemplary example of being comfortable with the skin that you're in. Isn't that like your calling card for your whole career?

Mo'Nique: Well, I've always been a big girl. As a child, I was always a big girl, but that was never a bad thing for me. It was never a bad thing in my family. But the woman that I saw that made me say it's possible was Oprah Winfrey. She was in Baltimore. She had a talk show.

Tavis: And you're from Baltimore?

Mo'Nique: I'm from Baltimore. I saw this fat Black woman on television looking gorgeous and I was like, wow, I can do that. So for me, it wasn't like I set out to say I'm going to be the poster child for fat girls. I just happened to be a fat girl who was very proud of being a fat girl. So now that I have the platform to say, "Baby, there ain't nothing wrong with your double stomach. That's yours. Hold onto it. That'll save your life. If you have a shoot-out right here, you will walk away from it. I promise you that. You'll walk away from it. You see that neck right there? You can't choke me. Not to death, you can't (laughter)."

Tavis: (Laughter) You are killing me. All right. Let's just say that I want to appreciate a fat girl, a plus size girl. Like what should I know before I - are there things that I should know before I go on a date with a plus size woman?

Mo'Nique: A real fat girl?

Tavis: Yeah.

Mo'Nique: You don't have to say plus size. Fat is fine.

Tavis: Okay.

Mo'Nique: A real fat girl is going to have an appetizer, the main course, dessert and then she's going to ask you for a doggy bag for Saturday when she's watching Lifetime. That's a real fat girl. Now listen to me. From a fat girl, once you go fat, you never go back because there are places that you can go on a fat girl that you can't go on nobody else and still be happy. I'll demonstrate later (laughter).

Tavis: I got to say, is it that I can't go back or I can't get back (laughter)?

Mo'Nique: It's both. You know what I believe? I believe that especially -

Tavis: - and, by the way, that was smooth how you did that.

Mo'Nique: I just put it right down.

Tavis: I like how you did that. You just brought it on down.

Mo'Nique: Yeah. That cramp started getting real hard.

Tavis: It was real smooth how you did that. Now here's how you did it. That was good, that was good.

Mo'Nique: (Laughter) Right. Fat girl trick.

Tavis: Okay, go ahead.

Mo'Nique: For me, I believe that especially Black men love big sisters because historically that's who we've always been. We've always been thick women. So when I walk in a room - and I love to walk in full of basketball players and football players and I see them with their girls and I see their eyes cross over to me. I go tap them, "I see you looking", right in front of her. "Stop it. Behave yourself."

Tavis: (Laughter) All right. Tell me about "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance.' Tell me something I don't know because I know it's successful. This thing is huge.

Mo'Nique: You know why it's so huge? I don't take all the credit at all. We're each other's reflection. When those fat girls come and they see one fat girl to another, it's each other's reflection. We're tired of people not cheering for us. So with "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance", it gives us the opportunity to be our own cheerleaders, to say we're not begging to come play with you anymore. We're going to play with ourselves and, if you want to come play, we'll let you, but we're not begging to come play with you. That's what "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance" is.

Tavis: Now you know there's some dietician watching right now who's saying, "Mo'Nique, I love you but you're wrong. You can't have these sisters being unhealthy. Don't tell them to stay fat if it's unhealthy."

Mo'Nique: Here's the beauty of it. I'm not telling anyone to stay unhealthy. I work out every day for one hour. Now I eat what I want to eat because I love - Tavis, listen. Food is so good to me. I swear to God. Do you hear me? And I like to chew it so I can get all the seasoning and flavors.

Tavis: Yeah, just take your time with it.

Mo'Nique: I can tell you every ingredient in barbecued chicken right now. Yes, honey. It's good to my throat.

Tavis: (Laughter) Not even in your stomach. It's good right up in here.

Mo'Nique: It's like, oh, can I stay here for a minute and just linger? Right in my throat. But the thing is, I don't tell women to be unhealthy. I do tell those sisters, listen, dedicate one hour to yourself every day for your health. But I'm not saying to go lose weight because all of us are not going to lose weight. I've lost no weight. I've simply toned it up so it appears as if I've lost all this weight. I'm 250 pounds and healthy. There's nothing wrong with me, so I'm not telling anyone to be unhealthy. Take care of yourself, but don't try to appease someone else. Oh, you got to get down to a size two or a size four? We're not built like that. We're big girls. My back is fat. I have a fat back, Tavis. Look at that.

Tavis: I see that, yeah.

Mo'Nique: Just like that. That's a super-hero back back there. I don't want to lose that super-hero back. That's a fat back.

Tavis: (Laughter) I got twenty seconds left. What's in the ether, in the atmosphere, which suggests that you all are going to have a big weekend because Black directors are doing well? There's a sister who directs this movie. The Black directors have made money this year. Tyler made some money. Spike made some money.

Mo'Nique: Yeah. It's going to make some money. As I told everyone, opening weekend is the most important. What camera can I look in so America can see?

Tavis: Right there. Three.

Mo'Nique: Hey, sugar, listen. The opening weekend is the most important weekend for Hollywood, so we're looking for a thirty million dollar weekend. I want every fat girl in the world in the theater April 7th, 8th and 9th.

Tavis: You got it.

Mo'Nique: There you go.

Tavis: There's your fifty-five million!

Mo'Nique: Tavis, you messed up my pose. You don't cut me off when I'm going into my thing like that.

Tavis: Okay. Can I close the show now (laughter)? Okay. Go see the movie, "Phat Girlz.' Keep the faith.