Speaker 1: Natively and pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reaisent Choice Media all Right. Joining the podcast now
Speaker 1: is author, comedian, and somewhat of a social commentator, Leslie Jones.
Speaker 2: We are social to have you on this show.
Speaker 1: It's happening in your world. I've been seeing you pop
Speaker 1: up a lot, so I know we have a lot
Speaker 1: to get into you. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: We're happy to have you, sus.
Speaker 3: Thanks welcome home. Thank you for having me. I'm excited.
Speaker 3: I watch you and Angela and Andrew all the time.
Speaker 2: But we appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love your pot. I love you Pot.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Know.
Speaker 1: We out here trying to do what we can in
Speaker 1: this uh, in this chaos, and it's so much happening, Leslie.
Speaker 1: And what I would have to say, what I appreciate
Speaker 1: about you is you have always tried to use your
Speaker 1: platform that either a make people laugh or be speak
Speaker 1: out about something. I love that you center women and
Speaker 1: black women and a lot of the things that you
Speaker 1: do and hold the line for us.
Speaker 2: So we appreciate you that.
Speaker 1: I think in this time we talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about what do we do so many people are asking
Speaker 1: us all the time what do we do?
Speaker 2: And on the other side.
Speaker 1: So many people are checked out, like they're just like,
Speaker 1: I can't it's too much happening.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm gonna binge something, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: Stream something which uniquely puts entertainers in a spotlight. So
Speaker 1: I'm curious what you think the role of Black Hollywood
Speaker 1: is in this moment as we're facing assault on every front,
Speaker 1: from our civil rights to our bodily autonomy, to our
Speaker 1: finances to the very infrastructure of the country. What do
Speaker 1: you think the role of Black Hollywood is there?
Speaker 4: Well, first, I feel like we need to realize what's
Speaker 4: happening through each decade or is that we're using less
Speaker 4: and less percentage of our brain, Like there's no critical thinking,
Speaker 4: there's no like and you get that through reading books
Speaker 4: and Okay, it's hard to kind of say this without
Speaker 4: I don't want to be offensive or whatever.
Speaker 3: But speak the truth.
Speaker 4: We had a crack error, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: We had There's there's kids that were born of that
Speaker 4: that wasn't raised like us like to have boundaries and
Speaker 4: critical thinking and think about it's we have to think
Speaker 4: about where the mind state of where everybody is not
Speaker 4: just black people white people, this society period. We are
Speaker 4: in the complacent stage right now, Like people always ask like,
Speaker 4: what do we do?
Speaker 3: What do we do? You know what we have to do?
Speaker 3: Everybody knows what we have to do.
Speaker 4: We just too complacent and we've paid for our convenience
Speaker 4: with our democracy.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, We're not.
Speaker 4: No one's gonna stop watching Netflix, no one's gonna stop
Speaker 4: ordering Amazon. And we could stop smoking cigarettes for one
Speaker 4: week and shut shit down, but no one's gonna do that,
Speaker 4: no one. No one's gonna take responsibility for their role
Speaker 4: and what we have to do until they actually take
Speaker 4: it serious. Because people still are on that Oh they
Speaker 4: can't do that, Oh they can't make that happen, but
Speaker 4: they are making that happen. And we're sitting here not
Speaker 4: understanding that we hold that we hold the key in
Speaker 4: our hand.
Speaker 3: It's us.
Speaker 4: We millionaires don't have money unless we give them money,
Speaker 4: you know, And as black people, we're one of the
Speaker 4: biggest consumers of this market and we just uneducated.
Speaker 3: Man, Like I'm so, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: It really comes down to whenever I hear anyone say
Speaker 4: that they're racist or or they don't understand. D you
Speaker 4: just uneducated because DEI is very simple. No one's saying
Speaker 4: they're lowing expectations. They're saying they're opening it up to everyone,
Speaker 4: not just to white people. And if you think that
Speaker 4: black people or immigrants are taking your jobs, go look
Speaker 4: at the test scores.
Speaker 3: No, it's your white friend that's taking your job. So
Speaker 3: so I'm sorry, I was going to ask you.
Speaker 5: So one of the things that TIF was getting at
Speaker 5: is the role that you see entertained playing in this
Speaker 5: particular moment. We know in our history, whether we're talking
Speaker 5: Harry Harry Belafonte to did Gregory, entertainment entertainers have always
Speaker 5: been an essential part of movement building. And you brought
Speaker 5: up DEI, which for our audience diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 5: Hollywood was one of the first industries hit by folks
Speaker 5: saying you know what, we actually are going to retract
Speaker 5: a little bit on this whole DEI thing. So when
Speaker 5: you think about what the requirement is, what is your
Speaker 5: most reasonable service in this time and what would you
Speaker 5: challenge your peers to do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I challenged them to when they go on a set,
Speaker 4: which is something I do. How many black people here, like,
Speaker 4: you know, you know you're not going to give me
Speaker 4: favorite dations. That's what they want to use, all of
Speaker 4: it because can't no white woman do my hair. I've
Speaker 4: had white hairdressers on set say to me, Oh, I
Speaker 4: date a black guy and we have a kid, so
Speaker 4: I know how to do black hair. What I've had
Speaker 4: a makeup artist said to me, Hey, I did Yola
Speaker 4: Davis and Gabrielle that bitch that has nothing to do
Speaker 4: with me.
Speaker 3: You need to go and get that tone. You need
Speaker 3: to go get my color.
Speaker 4: Tone because I'm five shades darker than her and five
Speaker 4: shades lighter than her.
Speaker 3: So what like?
Speaker 4: And I'm gonna tell you you gonna get labeled a bitch,
Speaker 4: but they gonna call you one anyway. I me myself.
Speaker 4: I don't like to look like a shiny ass bitch.
Speaker 4: When I was on SNL, we had a light in
Speaker 4: person that was like like put.
Speaker 3: Some more light, and I was like, put some more
Speaker 3: light on me.
Speaker 4: This is a dark gass stage. I'm a black bitch.
Speaker 4: Put the light on me. No, And I'm very verbal.
Speaker 4: I'm very verbal. Oh I look shiny, No, I look
Speaker 4: darker than what I am are you doing that on purpose?
Speaker 4: Are you trying to make me look dirty? Or are
Speaker 4: you is there a reason put some light on me? No.
Speaker 4: I had to learn that shit easy early too, because
Speaker 4: I'm a dark skinned person and if I wear any
Speaker 4: kind of light color, that shit flushes me out.
Speaker 3: So you have to speak up. Some people are scared
Speaker 3: to speak up.
Speaker 4: Because again, we in this this industry that's like, oh, you.
Speaker 3: Know, she's how I have to work with whatever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm difficult, Yeah, because I'm fucking Leslie Jones and
Speaker 4: I This is what people need to understand in this business.
Speaker 3: You are a business, that's right. You are a freelancer.
Speaker 4: When people ask you to work for them, that means
Speaker 4: that you are letting them have your services for a
Speaker 4: certain amount of time.
Speaker 3: In other words, if.
Speaker 4: I have some tractors and you had a feel you
Speaker 4: are renting my tractors and you're using them to do
Speaker 4: your field. But mother, those are my tractors, and you
Speaker 4: know what you're not gonna do. You're not gonna mistrade
Speaker 4: and mistreat my tractors either. You're gonna take care of them.
Speaker 4: And if you suck up my tractors, you're gonna pay
Speaker 4: for them. Do you get what I'm saying. So when
Speaker 4: you go on set and you see that, man, I
Speaker 4: say it straight up. I already know when somebody can't
Speaker 4: do my makeup. As soon as they go to reach
Speaker 4: for a rush, I'll be like, you don't know what
Speaker 4: you're doing. I call my girl, you got you gotta
Speaker 4: you gotta force them to do it, because most people
Speaker 4: don't and they get away with it. But if you
Speaker 4: say something, they can do something. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 4: at least when I do it. I don't know about
Speaker 4: everybody else, but when I speak up, oh I have
Speaker 4: nappy hair. She can't do my hair. So I have
Speaker 4: a glam team and we bro What I do is
Speaker 4: I bring my glam team in and they're good at
Speaker 4: what they do, and they be good at what they do,
Speaker 4: and then those people go, oh wow, yeah this works better,
Speaker 4: Oh wow, she looks great.
Speaker 3: Do you get what I'm saying?
Speaker 5: So you have to I hear you saying, Leslie like
Speaker 5: you si down to the glam and we love you
Speaker 5: for it. Dad supports black businesses. I'm sure, Andrew, who
Speaker 5: is the real fam?
Speaker 3: You for the no?
Speaker 6: I'm just sorry, you know, I'm loving that you you
Speaker 6: broke it down like that, and more importantly, I'm loving
Speaker 6: you calling out the fact that your talent is a
Speaker 6: business what you bring to the table. As Jay Z says,
Speaker 6: I'm a business man, and I wonder for you, Leslie,
Speaker 6: as you have increasingly become I don't know if it's
Speaker 6: become of you always been outspoken, because you know, I
Speaker 6: see you through the television screen and the movie theaters.
Speaker 6: But I'm wondering, as you speak up and speak out
Speaker 6: in Hollywood, does it cost you? Yeah, because I think
Speaker 6: you were getting at this. People don't want to be
Speaker 6: put in discomfort. They don't want to be inconvenience, which
Speaker 6: is why we're not choosing to boycott certain industries because
Speaker 6: that would hit too close to home. Talk a moment,
Speaker 6: just about the fact that you're risking something if you
Speaker 6: are well, every time you choose to step in the gap.
Speaker 3: I'd rather risk that than my the way. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm older now.
Speaker 4: Maybe in my twenties and thirties, you know I would
Speaker 4: have been like, Yo, I'm down for this, let's get
Speaker 4: this done because I'm trying to be in the hustle.
Speaker 4: But at the older I get, the more I think
Speaker 4: about my parents, more I think about my grandmother. The
Speaker 4: more I think about us as a people like and
Speaker 4: as getting older, I just become so into me being
Speaker 4: a black woman. Like I stopped perming my hair, I
Speaker 4: started growing my I just didn't realize how beautiful black
Speaker 4: women really are until you really, like after SNL, I
Speaker 4: dug deep into like a black woman's soul, and it's
Speaker 4: so it was always there, you know, it was always there.
Speaker 4: So whenever I'm choosing stuff now, it don't be like
Speaker 4: I'm making a choice. It's just like, yo, this is
Speaker 4: what's happening, Like no that I can't do this because
Speaker 4: I feel like this. So, yes, I do lose some things,
Speaker 4: But the good thing that I'm noticing is that the
Speaker 4: people who do know that I'm good, and the people
Speaker 4: do that know what integrity and dignity is, they're starting
Speaker 4: to come back around it at because I'm good at
Speaker 4: what I do. That's why I have to be super
Speaker 4: good at what I do. I wouldn't be able to
Speaker 4: take a stance if I wasn't funny as trust and believe.
Speaker 4: So that's why we tell everybody have some foundation behind
Speaker 4: your you know, don't don't be the pig with the
Speaker 4: stick house, be the pig with the bricks.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, So and be able to
Speaker 3: make more bricks, you know, yeah, so yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Do break went up.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: All we're talking about the price right, right.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that we're also talking.
Speaker 1: About this boycott, right, A lot of things the boycott,
Speaker 1: And I think as this administration continues to show chaos
Speaker 1: and we see the role of the private sector and
Speaker 1: as they fund some of these really dacronian initiatives, and
Speaker 1: who knows what else is coming down the pike. But
Speaker 1: a lot of us build audience on some of these platforms,
Speaker 1: for example Instagram even Facebook. For some people, you have
Speaker 1: a huge following on Instagram. Yeah, I used to, you know,
Speaker 1: watch your replays when it was about like Game of
Speaker 1: Thrones and all. A lot of the things that you do
Speaker 1: would go viral on Instagram. But this is owned by
Speaker 1: meta Mark Zuckerberg, who's a part we stream content on Amazon.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious how you plan to navigate that space.
Speaker 1: You plan on keeping your Instagram.
Speaker 2: And if you get off, like where is there to go?
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: Well, my thing too also is I'm a business person also,
Speaker 4: like you know, it's I can't.
Speaker 3: I have to learn how to navigate.
Speaker 4: A business too, but it also has to be what
Speaker 4: people want to Like. If people stop can win Instagram
Speaker 4: and you know, then I'm gonna find somewhere else because
Speaker 4: I was doing that before Instagram and before TikTok and
Speaker 4: before Twitter, I still was out there. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, We I think we need to start start
Speaker 4: like trying to wane off that shit because it's not
Speaker 4: good for us anyway. You know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 4: it's it's just making unnecessary people like conveymous that are
Speaker 4: really dangerous.
Speaker 3: You know. I think we're just so into this social
Speaker 3: media ship that I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just feel like if this wasn't around, we would
Speaker 4: still find.
Speaker 3: A way to communicate with each other.
Speaker 4: I think we just have to put a little bit
Speaker 4: more effort into it and I would find a way.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, now they got substacked, Now they
Speaker 4: got what is that Patreon?
Speaker 3: You know? I mean, yeah, what are what are working on?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 2: What is working to find? What can they see you in?
Speaker 2: How are going to promote it?
Speaker 3: Oh? I'm so many things.
Speaker 4: People just came out with that because you know, we're
Speaker 4: celebrating the sn L fifty, so I'm.
Speaker 3: On the cover of that.
Speaker 4: So I just uh sold a show with Universal, so
Speaker 4: that's going to be coming out. I'm also uh getting
Speaker 4: ready to do a play. My special was coming out.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, we got a lot of good ship cooking.
Speaker 6: I think she's propriet keeping it down.
Speaker 5: And if and she had a special, she didn't invite
Speaker 5: us to as much as she said, Oh my god,
Speaker 5: let me tell you, let me tell.
Speaker 3: You, let me tell you. I'm just let me tell
Speaker 3: you what happened.
Speaker 4: So was my special was supposed to be taped in
Speaker 4: Rancho Cuckamonga, so we was about to promote that, right.
Speaker 3: Rachal Cookamonga was like with it.
Speaker 4: They was like, yo, we're gonna pay you twenty five
Speaker 4: thousand extra for you to mention Rancho Cookamonga. And then somebody,
Speaker 4: I guess on the board went and looked at my
Speaker 4: material and they was like, oh no, she can't represent
Speaker 4: Rancho Cuckamonga. So they banned me from Rancho wow.
Speaker 2: Yo.
Speaker 4: And then I told him, I said, so it wasn't
Speaker 4: the myth that oh it was, It's not it's not
Speaker 4: the it's not the robber reason nothing that's not what's
Speaker 4: killing Okay, me telling a dick joke?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 4: Wow, so so so what happened we end up when yeah,
Speaker 4: then we yeah, then we read we had to reranch. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we had to redo it, and we end up doing
Speaker 4: it the night after the election, which was the worst night.
Speaker 3: And I'm telling you nobody.
Speaker 4: I was like so mad because I was like, why
Speaker 4: did y'all pick that date? Niggas, Like we saw Kamala
Speaker 4: was gonna win.
Speaker 5: All thought we would have we would have rs VP
Speaker 5: that we were going lest to celebrate with you and
Speaker 5: wouldn't have shown up.
Speaker 2: You would have been done with it.
Speaker 3: Before we let you go. So many people before we
Speaker 3: let you go. I have to just.
Speaker 6: Before we let go, we gotta ask you had referenced
Speaker 6: your twenty somethings, your thirty somethings. If you could turn
Speaker 6: back and look at that, sister, mm hmm, for those
Speaker 6: of us who are you know, still coming up on
Speaker 6: the rest side of the mountain, advice would you give?
Speaker 6: How would you ease the soul, the mind, the heart
Speaker 6: looking back on your troubles at the time, and how
Speaker 6: how you got over.
Speaker 4: You know what's so crazy? First of all, I believe
Speaker 4: in God. I really do believe in a higher power.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. I don't know if I
Speaker 4: believe in the God that these people believe in. But
Speaker 4: when you get older, you do start developing a real
Speaker 4: relationship with him because you really do. Like there's times
Speaker 4: that come the way you go, like I had a
Speaker 4: surgery and you know that type of stuff, people die.
Speaker 4: You know, you go on your knees and be like, yo,
Speaker 4: you say you there, like are you there?
Speaker 3: And he has proven to me that he's there.
Speaker 4: So so that for me is very important because then
Speaker 4: you just really hoping faith work in together, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But I would tell young folks, which I which.
Speaker 4: I tell people all the time, if I could quantum
Speaker 4: leap to myself and say, please don't worry, Like worry is.
Speaker 3: Not going to help it the situation at all.
Speaker 4: It is just like try to enjoy every stage of
Speaker 4: your life, like enjoy the small apartment, enjoy the ragley
Speaker 4: ass car, enjoy the shitty job, enjoy enjoy enjoy it,
Speaker 4: Like there's so many moments in there where you know
Speaker 4: you having fun. I think back when I was broke
Speaker 4: and the most fun thing I used to do was
Speaker 4: like I had a cupon for l Poloko and I
Speaker 4: would go get me some chicken wings. I would give
Speaker 4: me some chicken wings and two cheer rows and let
Speaker 4: me tell you something and go home and watch my
Speaker 4: favorite and I'm talking about joy. You have to find
Speaker 4: the little creases because that makes you human. Also disconnect
Speaker 4: like I literally leave my phones now inside another room
Speaker 4: because you have me connect. You have to promise you
Speaker 4: will waste most of your life and go outside. Go outside,
Speaker 4: walk in the park, look at the sky, and let
Speaker 4: me tell you something. And I tell young instant all
Speaker 4: the time. If you do not appreciate where you are,
Speaker 4: you will not be given the next step. Until you appreciate,
Speaker 4: you will not graduate.
Speaker 3: That's just it. That's a word.
Speaker 2: You made me think of something.
Speaker 1: Andrew. This is gonna be our last question because I
Speaker 1: know we overtime and Leslie gotta go, but just really
Speaker 1: before we let you go. You you work with a
Speaker 1: lot of other comedians, but also white women comedians, and
Speaker 1: I know we have talked about on this show, and
Speaker 1: I've been struggling with this question of the role of
Speaker 1: white women in our politics. And so my attitude is
Speaker 1: kind of like, y'all, y'all got it, y'all, y'all work
Speaker 1: it out amongst yourselves.
Speaker 2: I can't do it.
Speaker 1: But when you're in those spaces, Leslie as the soul
Speaker 1: black woman in an ensemble cast or on a show
Speaker 1: like SNL, do you get into those conversations and what
Speaker 1: would you say to white women who are complaining about it?
Speaker 1: And maybe they voted right, but they grandma voted for Trump,
Speaker 1: or maybe they group chat voted for Trump, or the
Speaker 1: assignment was to bring along your friends, how do you
Speaker 1: respond to them in this moment?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: No, girl, girl, do you know how much trouble I
Speaker 4: used to get into. I used to get into so
Speaker 4: much trouble because they would do things and I'd be like,
Speaker 4: that's racist, Like I'm that person. I'd be like, nah,
Speaker 4: that's racist, or a microaggression, like that's racist?
Speaker 3: What you mean by that?
Speaker 4: Like I don't I don't give about calling the bitch
Speaker 4: out because like you, you can't fight me.
Speaker 3: So let's let's go like what did you mean by that?
Speaker 3: But what did you mean by that? But what did
Speaker 3: you mean by that?
Speaker 4: But like no, And then a lot of white women
Speaker 4: do say things because they think that they're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I love when they say, well, I don't see color,
Speaker 4: and I'd be like, yes, you do, bitch, I said,
Speaker 4: you see colors because your outfit is.
Speaker 3: Coordinated, right, And let me tell you something.
Speaker 4: You're gonna see my color, bitch, because I'm a beautiful
Speaker 4: black alabasta And if you don't see my.
Speaker 3: Colors, then we have a mothering problem them.
Speaker 4: So you gotta check them, like the there's club owners
Speaker 4: that own that are trumpers, and you gotta check them.
Speaker 3: You gotta check them. You're wrong, You're freaking wrong. You're
Speaker 3: freaking wrong. There's a club that I don't go to
Speaker 3: because I'm not. I don't do this. I don't. You
Speaker 3: don't get to have me, and then vote the other way.
Speaker 4: You don't get to have me, and then tell me
Speaker 4: that I don't I'm a three fists of a person,
Speaker 4: or that I can't take care of my body, or
Speaker 4: I can't get.
Speaker 3: The same pay as you.
Speaker 4: No, the fing pay is the motherfucking pay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 4: And and so I get in trouble all the time, son,
Speaker 4: trust I get in trouble all the time because and oh,
Speaker 4: especially the white men.
Speaker 3: Because let me tell you something about white men. And
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm gonna say this, and I'm gonna be dumb,
Speaker 4: but I know every black woman will feel this. You
Speaker 4: need to understand that white men have a different type
Speaker 4: of fear for black women because.
Speaker 3: They was on the tit of our ancestors. We raised it.
Speaker 3: We're their discipline when we talk to a white man.
Speaker 4: Have you ever just really honestly talked to a white
Speaker 4: man and you could see him turning inside.
Speaker 3: Because because they know we're right. We we we your mammy,
Speaker 3: you know your mammy. I took a switch to you.
Speaker 3: I took a switch to.
Speaker 4: Your great granddaddy, like real talk, like there's that connection there,
Speaker 4: It really is.
Speaker 3: And and I think that's.
Speaker 4: Their biggest fear is that if we get in control,
Speaker 4: that we're going to do the same thing that they did.
Speaker 4: But we we don't feel that way. We are nurturing race.
Speaker 4: And this is another thing. We don't want to erase them.
Speaker 4: They want to erase us. That's the problem. We we
Speaker 4: know you want to survive. Go ahead and survive, but leave.
Speaker 2: Us alone, right, leave us alone? Well, show.
Speaker 3: You coordinated?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you leslie.
Speaker 1: We so appreciate you doing an.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you.
Speaker 2: No we appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 6: I think we got our marching orders, y'all. By the
Speaker 6: March Will Break.
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