âGhostbustersâ: Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnonâs magical solution for dealing with haters
Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon have a simple, devastatingly effective strategy for dealing with haters: self-acceptance. This may sound trite coming from some actors, but when Jones, a 6-foot tall, 48-year-old black woman, and McKinnon, a tiny, 32-year-old blond lesbian, tell you they have no room for judgment in their lives, theyâre pretty persuasive.
âI know who I am,â Jones said in a recent joint interview with McKinnon to promote their new movie, âGhostbusters.â âAnd I donât care if you think Iâm sexy.â
âI tried for a short time to be something I wasnât, and had no success with it,â McKinnon said. âItâs a practical solution to just be yourself.â
Those self-acceptance muscles have gotten a heavy workout lately thanks to the groundswell of misogyny that greeted the arrival of âGhostbusters,â which opens Friday. Director Paul Feigâs revamp of the 1984 supernatural comedy about a group of eccentric scientists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City has become an unlikely battleground in the gender wars, with aggrieved fans of the original waging an online campaign against the film for its casting of four women -- Jones, McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig -- in the lead roles.
In the movie, which Feig co-wrote with Katie Dippold, Jones plays Patty Tolan, a New York subway worker who sees a ghost on the tracks, and brings her knowledge of the city and historical arcana to the Ghostbusters team. McKinnon is Jillian Holtzman, a nuclear engineer with a maniacal enthusiasm for ghost-killing gadgetry.
Even before they joined the cast of the film, Jones and McKinnon had already broken barriers in their careers at âSaturday Night Live.â In 2014, at age 47, Jones became the oldest person ever to join the show as a cast member; in 2012, McKinnon became its first openly lesbian cast member. Both women have played small supporting roles in other films -- McKinnon appeared in the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy âSisters,â and Jones was in Chris Rockâs âTop Five,â but âGhostbustersâ is a breakout opportunity for each.
On the film set and promotional tour for âGhostbusters,â the two women are confidants and co-passengers on the notoriously bumpy trip from âSNLâ to the big screen, which can result in movie stardom (Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Will Ferrell) or the opposite (Chris Kattan, Dennis Miller, Tracy Morgan). McKinnon knows what Jones will order at a restaurant -- âCurry is not happening,â McKinnon said. Jones knows that McKinnon, an introvert, would prefer being at home with her cat, Nino, to most social events.
On âSNL,â their comedy styles are completely distinct. McKinnon, who is also a member of the sketch group Upright Citizens Brigade, disappears into uncanny impressions, like an over-eager Hillary Clinton and a swaggy, slinking Justin Bieber. Jones, who has performed stand-up for nearly 30 years, delivers a defiantly honest, larger-than-life version of herself.
Those qualities come across in person as well. McKinnon is chameleonlike, occasionally drifting into a winking impression of an actor on a junket, as when she says of her cat, âI like to protect his privacy because heâs not here to speak for himself.â
Jones is candid to a point that sometimes surprises even her, as when she talks about how the death of her brother in 2009 affected her comedy.
âThere was a time where I knew I was as funny as many dudes but I had people telling me, âYou have to wear a dress onstage. You need to be more feminine,ââ Jones said. âWhen my brother passed away⊠I made a decision that I might die soon, and if I die, I want people to know who I really am.â
The interview, part of a marathon of promotional appearances the women were doing in the run-up to the film, came at the end of a horrifying week in the U.S., in which two black men died at the hands of police and a sniper killed five police officers in Dallas. It was a disorienting time to be promoting a light-hearted movie with proton packs and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
âOur nation is just sad right now,â Jones said. âEverybody is just depressed. I feel the unhappiness of us.â
She lamented the lack of shared entertainment that might provide a release valve for cultural tensions, referencing the 1970s sitcoms she had loved as a kid.
âThink about back in the day when we had Archie Bunker, âThe Jeffersons,ââ Jones said. âWe had stuff to sit down and share and laugh at. The Internet has made it so we donât have to sit together anymore. Itâs so self-absorbed. No one has to talk to each other anymore, and people donât realize that that is killing us.â
A Memphis, Tenn.-born Army brat, Jones went to high school in Lynwood and attended Chapman University on a basketball scholarship before transferring to Colorado State, with a major in communications and an eye on an acting career.
âI always thought I was gonna be an action hero,â Jones said. âI thought Iâd be the female Wesley Snipes... cause of my height. But as the years kept passing, I thought, âHmm, getting a little old. Not going to be jumping off those buildings.ââ
If Jones has been a late bloomer professionally, McKinnon hit her mark early on. While growing up on Long Island and studying theater at Columbia University, she set âSNLâ as her ultimate career goal, reaching it at age 28.
âI hope to be on âSNLâ as long as theyâll let me,â McKinnon said. âBut Iâve come to enjoy film acting as well. Paul Feig gave me this incredible opportunity, and I really caught the bug.â
One of McKinnonâs favorite shows is âThe Bachelorâ and its offshoots, which she studies like a human behaviorist, trying to suss out the contestantsâ motivations. As the women debated the dating franchiseâs merits, they plotted what it might be like with Jones as the Bachelorette.
âYou would eliminate 24 guys based on looks alone and then you would have one conversation with one guy and eliminate him because heâs stupid,â McKinnon said. âIt would be âA Bachelorette Three-Day Special With Leslie Jones.ââ
âAnd Iâm not giving roses out,â Jones said. âIâm giving cactuses. If you accept this cactus, then you accept me.â
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