Leslie Jones has revealed that she had a confrontation with a Saturday Night Live writer over being typecast as “angry” and aggressive.
“It was kind of frustrating that they always made me into this girl who gets angry and hits people and falls in love with white boys,” the comedian said on the June 12 episode of “The Sam Sanders Show.”
“They were always making me angry or fighting with someone,” she added.
Jones, who appeared on the sketch comedy series from 2014 to 2019, said she asked the writers to “stop writing me like that,” but they refused.
“They were like, ‘This is a success. Once you get out of here, you’ll be able to…'” she recalled. “No, I don’t want to be Chevy Chase. I don’t want to be anyone…I want to be Leslie. I want to do everything.”
Jones continued, “I said to them, ‘Hey, can I be in this sketch?'” ‘Hey, when are you going to play the guy?’ They let me do other things and didn’t let me play as much as I wanted to play. ”
The 58-year-old said she had spoken to creator Lorne Michaels about the racial “darker side” going on behind the scenes.
“You know, there are racist things going on here,” she said, later claiming on “SNL” that “misogyny is worse than racism.”
Despite her frustrations, Jones said she stayed on the NBC show because she knew it was best for her career.
“I wanted to be on the show,” she said. “At the time, I didn’t realize it was happening until it went on. And every time I got a sketch, I was like, ‘Okay, who am I going to punch this week?'”
Jones also said that SNL is a “machine” that will never change because it has been “successful” since its premiere in 1975.
“If you want to go there, go there, because it’s a great foundation,” she said as advice for up-and-coming comedians. “It’s a great place for you to still find yourself. You can definitely find love there.”
However, Jones said comics needed to have “very strong personalities” and be “very confident in themselves” to appear on the show.
When asked to sum up her experience, Jones said it was “bittersweet.” Because while she “loved being there” and “had fun,” she “didn’t miss the mental part” of the job.
Page Six has reached out to SNL for comment.
Jones joined SNL as a writer during Season 39 in 2014 and was promoted to a permanent cast member later that year.
At the time, Jones was 47 years old and the oldest recruit in program history.
She received two Emmy nominations for her performance before leaving the series in 2019.
