Saturday Night Live has been home to hundreds of incredible cast members over the years, but few have brought the uniquely vibrant energy that Leslie Jones always exudes. The actress and comedienne spent five seasons with the long-running NBC late-night series, first as a writer and then as one of its stars. She reflected on her time with SNL in her new memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones, and then in talking about the release, has revealed more details about the highs and lows of working on the Emmy-winning series.
In an interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, Leslie Jones opened up about her experience on SNL, including how she often felt like she was being asked to play the same type of character, one that was basically just an extension of herself. As she put it:
SNL, they take that one [trope] and they wring it. They wring it because that’s the machine. So whatever it is that I’m giving that they’re so happy about, they feel like it’s got to be that all the time or something like that. So it was like a caricature of myself.
Leslie Jones said she wasn’t the only cast member who experienced comedic typecasting of that variety on SNL. In her experience, fellow former castmates like Taran Killam were also being limited in the types of roles they could play, which was eye-opening for her.
But it sounds like Jones hasn’t taken those arguable limitations personally, and doesn’t fully believe it was a personal affront, since she wasn’t alone in having her potential dulled for the sake of highlighting only certain talents. Because it wasn’t (and still isn’t) just one person or group that needed to be pleased by what made it to the screen, but a web of them. Here’s how she put it:
I used to always be like, [executive producer Lorne Michaels is] the puppet master. So he has to make the cast happy, has to make the writers happy, he has to make the WGA happy, he has to make NBC happy. Then he has to make a family in Omaha, Neb., who’s watching the show happy. Imagine the strings that have to go out to him. So it’s a machine that has to work.
It sounds like working on SNL was challenging at times, because she wasn’t always able to show her full range as a performer. But it’s great that she has the ability to talk about her experience now and share what it’s like behind the scenes without anger. It’s not surprising at all that Leslie Jones would be so direct about her experiences with SNL – she has frequently and bravely spoken her mind about working in the entertainment industry. For example, she didn’t hold back her displeasure when a new Ghostbusters reboot was announced in 2019, three years after she and her co-stars faced backlash for their all-female version in 2016.
As an entertainment industry veteran, Leslie Jones has more than earned the right to speak her mind. She joined the SNL cast in 2014 at the age of 47 after spending years working as a stand-up comedian, and during her time on SNL, she made a name for herself with her fiery appearances on the long-running segment Weekend Update, as well as hilarious impressions of celebs like Omarosa Manigault Newman and Whoopi Goldberg – whom she was apparently instructed not to kill off in one sketch.
She’s gone on to host Supermarket Sweep for its truncated run on ABC, and apparently has zero regrets about leaving the NBC sket show behind, saying:
I realized that I can only do so much in this machine. Or I can take what I learned in this machine and go make my own machine. It’s like a bittersweet thing. I love the show.
Her memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones, can be purchased in bookstores nationwide now. And you can rewatch all of Leslie Jones’ best SNL sketches if you have Peacock subscription.