“Saturday Night Live” alumnus Leslie Jones recently said on “The Sam Sanders Show” that she found it “frustrating” that “SNL” writers often typecast her 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,” Jones said. “They always make me angry or fight with someone.”
Host Sam Saunders asked Jones if he was okay with such a depiction. Ms. Jones explained that the reason she didn’t fight back was because “she wanted to be on the show” and that at that moment, “I didn’t think something like that would happen until it lasted.”
“Every time I got a sketch, I thought, ‘Okay, who am I going to punch this week?'” she added. “I started getting annoyed with[the writers]. I was like, ‘Stop writing like that.’
Despite her objections, Jones said the typecasting continued.
“They said, ‘This is a success. You can leave here and make a (career),'” Jones recalled. “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. And I want to do everything completely, you know?”
Asked if he thought SNL was a “healthy place for black comics,” Jones said, “I think it’s a machine. That’s all I can say.”
Jones joined Saturday Night Live during its 39th season, making her, at 47, the oldest newcomer in the show’s history. She appeared on SNL for five seasons until 2019, and was nominated twice for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
