STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Leslie Jones Cursed Out Kenan Thompson Over His Comments About Black Women

She shares what she told her SNL co-star behind closed doors.

Who can forget when Kenan Thompson put his foot in his mouth by saying there were no qualified Black women to join the cast of Saturday Night Live  last year? Certainly not Leslie Jones, who was one of the two women hired on the show after a huge outcry over diversity.

Kenan's comments about Black women probably made for a very awkward first day of work when Jones and Sasheer Zamata joined the SNL team, but Jones says she didn't turn a blind eye to Thompson's ignorant remarks.
"I came at him, like, 'I heard what you said, motherf**ker,'" Jones tells The New Yorker. "He said, 'Come in, close the door, let's talk.'" While she says Thompson wouldn't back down from his comments — "What I said was that the show hadn’t found the right people," he explained, adding, "That was true. And at the end of the day Leslie and Sasheer both got jobs, so I'm happy" — they did manage to come to some sort of understanding. In fact, Jones says that Thompson is now "possibly my best friend on the show."
As the star of the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot, Jones's career is about to take off in a major way, so we think she got the last laugh on this one. 
Watch Will Ferrell share his take on SNL's diversity problem in our exclusive interview with the actor below:

(Photos from left: Larry Busacca/Getty Images, Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

BET.com is your No. 1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music. 

Latest News

Subscribe for BET Updates

Provide your email address to receive our newsletter.


By clicking Subscribe, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers) and other information from BET and the Paramount family of companies. You understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.