Last weekend was, of course, the Oscars. Depending on your view they are either a fabulous affair that presents the opportunity to celebrate truly great acting or a pompous display of the shallowness that is Hollywood. Either way, one of the most controversial figures going into the Oscars was the eventual Best Supporting Actress winner, Mo’Nique. Why? Because Mo’Nique did something rarely done in Hollywood: she said, “No.”

In Hollywood, of course, part of being an actor is not only acting  it’s also doing the publicity. Publicity involves going to film festivals, doing the talk show circuit, attending movie openings and so on, all for the sake of promoting your movie. Now, I don’t pretend to know all the ins-and-outs of actors’ contracts. I don’t know if it’s written into their contract that their pay for making the movie includes money to pay for their participation in publicity. I don’t think it does, but I could be wrong.

In any case, Mo’Nique’s contract must not have included payment for publicity, because she refused to do it, setting off a bit of controversy. In an interview with the Associated Press (published in The Los Angeles Times, 02/28/10), Mo’Nique said she was asked by studio executives to promote the film for free, to which she said, “OK, baby. Well, then, that’s not something we can do.” Then she said to the AP reporter, “Because, when I leave out, why ever would I go do something for free when I can go and do something and bring money back home to my family?”

Now, it would be easy to brush her off as another greedy celebrity who just wants to make even more money, but I completely agree with her. Why on earth should she be expected to go out and work for free just to ensure that the executives and the studio make bigger profits off the movie? Because it’s expected of her? Please. Doing publicity for the movie would have taken her away from her family and from her other work, work that she would have been paid to do.

And that’s an important lesson for freelancers. Too often, we’re asked to do little things (or big things) for free because “that’s just the way it’s done,” or because “it’s the nice thing to do.” How often have you been asked to attend an extra meeting or make just a few more revisions to a report for free? Those little freebies add up. They take time away from other work you could be doing or time away from your family. They take time away from you.

That’s why it’s important when you set up contracts with clients to spell out exactly how many meetings you’ll attend and how many revisions you’ll include. Doing so means you’ll be paid for those meetings and revisions and it means you are within your rights to charge extra when the client asks for more of your time.

Remember, your clients wouldn’t want to work for free, so why should you? Any client who expects you to give up your time without proper compensation isn’t a client you need. The clients you need are those who know your time is valuable and compensate you for it.

It’s not greedy to want to be paid–paid well, even–for the work you do.

Keep that in mind and you might just be a happy freelancer.

After all, if an Oscar-winning actress can say no to the freebies, with all of Hollywood watching and judging her, so can you.