Before she was starring in blockbusters like Ghostbusters, Leslie Jones was behind the scenes at Saturday Night Live.
The funny woman called in to On Air With Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday, August 16, to celebrate her Emmy nomination and recalled her rise to fame on SNL.
“I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t even know they was like grooming me to do the ‘Update,’” Jones shared of her gig on the longstanding showcase. “I just thought I was there helping with the writing and stuff. But I always told them that, ‘Hey, you know I’m not a writer. I’m actually a performer. That’s what I like to do. I like to perform.’ And they knew about all my jokes and stuff and I think one night they just came up and were like, ‘Hey we want you to do an Update about the texting.’ [So] I wrote it and went on there and I killed it.”
Fast-forward and Jones is now up for an Emmy for Supporting Actress in a Comedy for her work on the award-winning show.
“It’s really crazy,” Jones said of her first-ever Emmy nom. “If I win, it’s just going to be ignorance. I’m going to show them exactly how people really win … it’s gonna be a lot of snot. It’s gonna probably be like hugging people … like, ‘We did it, Ryan!’”
Catch Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Summer Edition on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c.