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"Lee Daniels has claimed that he cast Mo&amp;#039;Nique in Precious because she would never question his direction. The filmmaker has said that aside from previously having worked with the actress, he considers Mo&amp;#039;Nique to be a very good friend. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, the 50-year-old said: &amp;quot;Mo&amp;#039;Nique was the first person that I cast. We worked together on a film called Shadowboxer. She&amp;#039;s my very good friend and she doesn&amp;#039;t - and for the most part, nor do any of the other actors - question me. They don&amp;#039;t question me.  &amp;quot;If I ask you to throw the baby, she throws the baby... I ask her don&amp;#039;t shave her arms, she doesn&amp;#039;t shave her arms. There are no questions.&amp;quot; As for the casting of Gabourey Sidibe in the lead role of Precious, Daniels revealed that he had a difficult time narrowing potential actresses for the part. He said: &amp;quot;I interviewed over 400 girls... I looked for the truth. I was looking for girls that were Precious because, certainly, Hollywood didn&amp;#039;t offer them.  &amp;quot;So I was at the 7-Eleven, on the train station stops, inside of the KFC, off the streets. I narrowed it down to 10 girls and they were phenomenal... a lot of them couldn&amp;#039;t read, a lot of them were sexually abused. I learned so much about Precious through those 400 girls.&amp;quot; Precious is currently playing in the US and arrives in UK cinemas on January 29, 2010. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a198705/lee-daniels-monique-doesnt-question/>