Leslie Jones is leading with true transparency with her memoir, “Leslie F*cking Jones: A Memoir.”
In an excerpt from her book, the comedian and actress recounted “being bullied” on Twitter for starring in the 2016 remake of “Ghostbusters.” While the members of the all-women cast faced misogyny online, Jones, as a Black woman, was also hit with racism and death threats. The hate she received became extreme, to the point that she pulled down her Twitter account.
“That night of July 18 [2016] was horrible, though,” Jones wrote in the book, per Rolling Stone. “I remember crying and thinking, This is the first time I had ever seen it so bad. How do y’all all get together to bully a person? It wasn’t as if I’d committed a crime or something — I was being bullied over a movie, over playing a part in a movie. (I can’t believe I have to say this out loud.)”
Jones went on to reveal how the poor treatment she experienced from being cast in “Ghostbusters” came from the studio as well. She shared that although she starred alongside Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, her paycheck was significantly less than what they received.
“No knock on them, but my first offer was to do that movie for $67,000,” she said. “I had to fight to get more (in the end I got $150K), but the message was clear: ‘This is gonna blow you up—after this, you’re made for life,’ all that kind of sh-t, as though I hadn’t had decades of a successful career already. And in the end, all it made for me was heartache and one big a-s controversy.”
McCarthy earned $14 million for the film, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The backlash from starring in “Ghostbusters” caused emotional distress for Jones. However, she also shared the positives such as learning new things about filming and connecting with her co-stars.
“But listen, I had a great time, too,” Jones said, per Rolling Stone. “I bonded with Kate. I loved Boston, became a kind of Bostonian. We were right by Fenway [Park, home of MLB’s Boston Redsox]. We’d walk from the set through a beautiful park to the hotel. People would recognize us, come by to say hi. I loved that city. And being trained to do, and then doing, the stunts themselves? I loved that. And the crew was f—king incredible, too, really sweet and helpful.”
She added, “I think that’s why one of the worst things about that movie is that it should have been a great film. That crew deserved for y’all to see the movie we actually made. But a lot of stuff got cut for cost.”
According to IMDb, “Ghostbusters” made $229 million worldwide.
