If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Not comedian and actress Leslie Jones, who had a bad experience working on the reboot of the 1984 film classic, Ghostbusters.
Jones, who starred on Saturday Night Live from 2013 to 2019, blames racism for the online backlash she received when the 2016 Ghostbusters film debuted, including death threats.
The reboot featured four women — Jones, Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, and Kirstin Wiig — in the starring roles, a switch from originals Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Rick Moranis.
The polarized reaction by the public to the new concept was bad even before the reboot’s release.
The film lost an estimated $70 million for studio Sony Pictures, scuttling plans to create an offshoot franchise.
Related: Leslie Jones Gets Candid About ‘Saturday Night Live’ Exit
Even worse, the cast suffered online racist and sexist attacks, as well as threats of violence.
Jones opened up to UK media outlet The Guardian about her role as Patty Tolan in the film, lamenting the response to it on Twitter (now X) and other social media, which surprised her.
“The platform (Twitter) is the first thing I went after, because I was like: ‘Hey, I’m in your club.’ You’re supposed to have security. People are shooting at me. I shouldn’t have death threats on here,” she recalled.
Despite advice not to feed the online trolls, Jones wasn’t taking the abuse.
“I absolutely was not going to ignore it,” she said. “I am so tired of this attitude, I am so tired of being the bigger person. No, meet these motherfuckers where they at and fight back. I am not a victim – you’re an asshole. It’s wild to me that we can build these glorious things, we can build an iPhone, and we still can’t beat racism.”
The film’s poor performance didn’t hold Jones back, though. She since has hosted the reboot of TV’s Supermarket Sweep, as well as an MTV awards ceremony, guest-hosted The Daily Show, voiced animated projects for film and TV, and written her memoir.
For her next project, she wants to tackle a switch from comedy. “I want to do a serious acting role, maybe play some kind of detective. I could find the serial killer or I could be the serial killer.”
Jones is on tour in the U.S. from Sept. 19 to Nov. 22.
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