In an excerpt from her new memoir Leslie F*cking Jones, published by Rolling Stone on Tuesday (September 19th), Leslie Jones recalled the racist and sexist backlash she faced for starring in the 2016 Ghostbusters movie alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon. The Saturday Night Live alum also addressed Juno director Jason Reitman‘s “unforgivable” comments about the film.
“Why are people being so evil to each other? How can you sit and type 'I want to kill you.' Who does that?” Jones wrote about the trolls who went after her online. “… Sad keyboard warriors living in their mother's basements hated the fact that this hallowed work of perfect art now featured — gasp! horror! — women in the lead roles,” she added. “Worst of all, of course, was that one of the lead characters was a Black woman. For some men this was the final straw.”
Years after the 2016 film was released, Reitman announced he was making Ghostbusters: Afterlife and said on Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast that he was “trying to go back to the original technique and hand the movie back to the fans.”
Addressing these comments, Jones wrote, “Bringing up the idea of giving the movie ‘back to the fans’ was a pretty clear shout-out to all those losers who went after us for making an all-female movie.”
