Leslie Jones Gets Candid on SNL, Ghostbusters and What Comes Next
Leslie Jones visits “The Daily Beast’s Obsessed” podcast! And this one actually goes places. The comedian sits down with Matt Wilstein for a candid conversation that moves from Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters backlash to her new HGTV series Roast My Rental, the “I’m Hot” comedy tour and the career she is still very much building on her own terms.
The episode runs about 44 minutes, which gives Jones enough room to do more than cycle through promotion. She talks directly about why she left SNL after five seasons, saying the late start to that chapter of her career made her feel she had less time to sit still. Had she joined the show younger, she says, she might have stayed longer. Instead, she wanted to keep moving — back toward stand-up, new television work and even dramatic acting.
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Jones also looks back at the ugliest side of the Ghostbusters era and the racist, sexist online harassment that followed the 2016 reboot. She remains blunt about how she handled it: not by shrinking, not by pretending it did not hurt, and not by accepting the role of passive victim. That same refusal to let other people define the story runs through the whole interview.
There is plenty of comedy-business talk too. Jones reflects on what SNL taught her beyond performing — writing, producing, casting and how television actually gets made — while also admitting she still has ambitions the show could never contain. One of the more fun left turns: she wants to play a superhero villain. Honestly, the energy is already there.
Elsewhere, the conversation touches Trump, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, AI, Hollywood’s uncertain future and why Jones would rather roast ridiculous houses than people. The latter tracks with her new HGTV setup: the joke stays sharp, but the target is a bad rental property instead of someone sitting in the chair taking punches.
What makes the episode work is Jones herself. She can pivot from career strategy to irritation to a punchline in the same breath without sanding any of it down. Even when the subject turns heavier, the point of view stays unmistakably hers.
Leslie Jones Talks SNL, ‘Ghostbusters,’ Trump & More on Obsessed: The Podcast
Leslie Jones joins Matt Wilstein on Obsessed: The Podcast for a 44-minute conversation about leaving SNL, surviving the Ghostbusters backlash, Roast My Rental, her stand-up tour and the roles she still wants to chase.
Sources: The Daily Beast / Obsessed: The Podcast; Apple Podcasts.
