Comedienne/actress Leslie Jones has book out called “Leslie F*cking Jones: A Memoir.”
In it, she reveals the bullying she dealt with for being in cast in the all-female remake of “Ghostbusters” in 2016: “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.)”
She also revealed that she received much less than her co-stars Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig : “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.” Jones of course was also a cast member of the iconic Saturday Night Live at the time. “And in the end, all it made for me was heartache and one big a-s controversy.”
Per the Hollywood Reporter, McCarthy received $14 million, while “Ghostbusters” grossed $229 million worldwide.
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.”
You can buy Jones’ memoir wherever books are sold.
Source: Gregg DeGuire / Getty
