In looking back at the abuse and death threats she received for her role in the all-female “Ghostbusters” movie of 2016, Leslie Jones writes in her new autobiography, “I can’t believe anyone would do this s–t to someone.”
In an excerpt from “Leslie F*cking Jones: A Memoir” published by Rolling Stone on Tuesday, she recalls how she received so many racist and misogynist comments on Twitter that then CEO Jack Dorsey had to put a special team on her account to try to stem the hateful tide. It also launched an investigation from Homeland Security.
The movie, which was supposed to boost her post- “Saturday Night Live” career, only gave her “heartache and one big-a– controversy,” she noted in the excerpt.
“‘Ghostbusters’ came out July 11, 2016, but before it had even hit the movie theaters it had been the subject of intense online abuse—and no surprise that I was the one who got most of the hate,” she wrote, referring to her white co-stars Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig.
“For a start, sad keyboard warriors living in their mothers’ basements hated the fact that this hallowed work of perfect art now featured — gasp! horror! — women in the lead roles. Worst of all, of course, was that one of the lead characters was a Black woman. For some men this was the final straw,” Jones recalled.
It got so bad that eight days after the movie premiered, she temporarily took down her Twitter account after multiple attempts to hack it. “Earlier that same evening I’d gotten a tweet from Jack Dorsey, then CEO of Twitter, telling me to DM him. He was aware that I was being brutally attacked with racial slurs and worse, and started putting people on my account — this was basically the start of Twitter taking this -s–t more seriously.”
She added that hacking attempts are still “a daily occurrence,” so she has her own security team in place to protect it.
Jones also blasted Jason Reitman, son of original “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman, for his tweet in which he promised that “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” would “hand the movie back to the fans,” completely ignoring the existence of the 2016 comedy.
The former “Saturday Night Live” star also revealed that she was initially offered only $67,000 for the movie, which was “way less” than McCarthy and Wiig were paid. “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 s–t… And in the end, all it made for me was heartache and one big-a–controversy.”
Jones added, “But maybe something good came out of all this after all … By the end I was thinking, This s–t won’t ever happen again. I know that I’m not a big star yet, but after this muthaf—a, after figuring this out, I’m about to release the Kraken.”
“Leslie F*cking Jones: A Memoir” from Grand Central Publishing is now on sale.
