“Saturday Night Live” alum Leslie Jones recently told “The Sam Sanders Show” that she found it “frustrating” that the writers at “SNL” would often typecast her as angry and aggressive.
“It was kind of frustrating that they would always make me the girl that was angry and beating up people or in love with a white boy,” Jones said. “They just always would make me angry or I’m fighting somebody.”
Host Sam Sanders then asked Jones if she was ok with that type of portrayal. Jones explained that she didn’t fight back because “she wanted to be on the show,” and in the moment, “didn’t think that that was happening until it kept happening.”
“Every time I would get a sketch, I was like, ‘OK, who am I beating up this week?’” she added. “I just started getting frustrated with [the writers]. I was like, ‘Stop writing me like that.’”
Despite her objections, Jones said the typecasting continued.
“They’re like, ‘This is successful. When you leave here, you’ll be able to make [a career],’” Jones recalled. “I don’t want to be Chevy Chase. I don’t want to be whoever. I want to be Leslie. I want to do everything. And I wanted to go across the board with everything, you know?”
When asked if she thought “SNL” was a “healthy place to be a black comic,” Jones replied, “I think that it is the machine that it is. That’s just all I can tell you.”
Jones joined “Saturday Night Live” during the 39th season, becoming the oldest new recruit in the show’s history at age 47. She was on “SNL” for five seasons until 2019, and earned two Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series.