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Leslie Jones is another Black woman in Hollywood who’s experienced unequal pay compared to her co-stars.
In her new memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones, the comedienne-actress unpacked the fraught drama surrounding her role in 2016’s Ghostbusters alongside white stars Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig.
Jones claimed she was paid “way less” than her co-stars in the Paul Feig-directed reimagining of the 1980s fan favorite. The 56-year-old Supermarket Sweep host said she was initially lowballed with an offer from those behind the camera, who promised the Ghostbusters role would be great exposure.
“It was made clear to me at times during the process that I was lucky to even be on that movie, but honestly, I was thinking, ‘I don’t have to be in this muthafucka,’ especially as I got paid way less than Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig,” the 56-year old actress wrote in an excerpt of her memoir, shared by Rolling Stone Sept. 19. “No knock on them, but my first offer was to do that movie for $67,000.”
“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 shit, as though I hadn’t had decades of a successful career already.”
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The Ghostbusters cast additionally starred Kate McKinnon, Zach Woods, Steve Higgins and more. According to IMBD, the film’s budget was $144 million, and it made over $229 million worldwide. The Hollywood Reporter noted that McCarthy took home $14 million — making Jones’ side of the story all the more stark.
The latter’s ties to the film were additionally distressed due to racist online trolling and death threats she received from those who didn’t want to see women — particularly a Black one — cast in a Ghostbusters film.
Jones said that she’d received “most of the hate” because, for some men, her spot in the nostalgia-provoking movie was “the final straw.”
The actress had to temporarily take down her X account because there had been several attempts to hack it, and the racism she endured was overwhelmingly heartbreaking at that time.
“I cried not because I was being bullied, but because this is our world and because I can’t believe anyone would do this shit to someone, anyone, for working. This is awful. I am in a movie. Death threats for something as small as that?”
The Saturday Night Live alum is currently on a book tour for Leslie F*cking Jones. Her next stops are in Philadelphia, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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