Leslie Jones has reflected on her “bittersweet” five-year stint on Saturday Night Live, recalling being repeatedly typecast to play the stereotypical angry Black female characters.
The Emmy-nominated comedian, 58, appeared on the long-running sketch comedy series from 2014 to 2019. She was first hired as one of three Black women writers before she was promoted to a featured cast member in the show’s 40th season.
While Jones “loved” her time on the show, describing it as “great fun,” she admitted on a recent episode of The Sam Sanders Show podcast that she does not “miss the mental part of it.”
Acknowledging that the show tends to “make you a character of yourself,” she still found it “frustrating that they would always make me the girl that was angry and beating up people or in love with a white boy.”
“They just always would make me angry or I’m fighting somebody,” she recalled.
Some of Jones’s most notable sketches include “This Is How I Talk,” which featured comedian Louis C.K. as a new employee at a Sprint mobile store who must pass off his insulting impression of his boss (Jones) as his real voice to avoid getting fired; “Wedding Objections,” which saw Jones’s character Alberta, a WNBA athlete, attempt to marry White Castle owner Ian (Martin Freeman) only to face a slew of objections during the ceremony; and “Etiquette Lesson,” in which she portrayed Meghan Markle’s fictional third cousin, Shanté Thomas, who receives a lesson in proper manners.
Asked if she was OK with being forced into playing racial stereotypes, she said: “I wanted to be on the show, and at the time I didn’t think that [typecasting] was what was happening ‘till it kept happening. And then, like, every time I would get a sketch, I was like, ‘Okay, who am I beating up this week?’”
Jones said it got to a point where she finally approached the team, asking them to “stop writing me like that.” She claimed they ignored her requests, “because they’re like, ‘This is successful.’”
The Independent has contacted SNL for comment.
Of whether she thinks SNL is a healthy environment for Black comics, she diplomatically remarked: “I think that it is the machine that it is. That’s all I can tell you.
“If you want to be there, go there because it is a great foundation. It is a great place for you still to find yourself.”
During her time on SNL, Jones received three Emmy nominations: two for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and one for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
