Mo'Nique is suing Netflix, alleging that the company is discriminatory in the way it pays performers and inside its own corporate structure, TMZ reports.
The comedian and Oscar-winner famously called for a boycott of the platform after they reportedly offered her $500,000 for a comedy special. She alleges in the suit that the company paid Amy Schumer $13 million for a similar special and that race and sex played a part in her low-ball offer from the service.
"Netflix is one of Hollywood’s most innovative companies, yet it not only perpetuates racial and gender inequality, it also takes advantage of a gender pay gap that disproportionately affects black women, who nationwide make only 61 cents for every dollar white males bring home,” Mo’Nique’s attorney, Michael W. Parks, laid out in a statement. “When Mo’Nique, one of the most well-known black female comedians in America, faced that anachronistic attitude, she knew it was time to challenge the status quo.”
In the suit, Mo'Nique also points to the pay gap between actors and actresses on the Netflix series The Crown, and alleges that both Netflix executives and actor Kevin Spacey used racial slurs while on set or in the boardroom. Mo'Nique is suing for unspecified damages and an injunction forcing the company to change policy.
Mo'Nique's charged campaign against Netflix began last year and caused a rift between her and other entertainers she considered friends. The actress shamed Steve Harvey for seemingly taking Netflix's side earlier this year.
"This is my brother, and when I heard you go on the air and you said, 'My sister done burned too many bridges. There's nothing I can do for her now,' Steve, do you know how hurt I was?" she told the talk show host in February.
Harvey countered that accepting disrespect was par for the course.
"We can't come out here and do it any way we want to. Your husband can't be the Sidney [Hicks] that he really is out here," he said. "This is the money game. This ain't a black man's game, this ain't a white man's game. This is the money game!"
In a statement provided to Complex, a Netflix spokesperson responded, "We care deeply about inclusion, equity, and diversity and take any accusations of discrimination very seriously. We believe our opening offer to Mo'Nique was fair -- which is why we will be fighting this lawsuit."
