Leslie Jones Demands Women Be Respected ‘as F—ing Humans’

Leslie Jones will be bringing her considerable talent to Variety’s Power of Women gala, which she will host on Oct. 24. “I have to see what the crowd is. I’m thinking these are gonna be classy ladies, so I’m definitely gonna have to, you know, watch my mouth first,” laughs the Emmy-nominated actor and comedian, who is known to toss out a profane word or two during her sets.

The event, in partnership with Lifetime, will honor Amy Adams, Bela Bajaria, Carol Burnett and Zoe Saldaña, and highlights female leaders in the entertainment industry, who are profiled in the Women’s Impact Report.

“It’s more about just bringing a little bit of joy, a little bit of ease to the room,” the comedian explains of her mission that night. “Everybody’s gonna be dressed up and probably kind of a little nervous. So I like to always make people just go, ‘Hey, live in this moment. Live in this moment! It’s fun. We are all looking good.” Just try to bring that atmosphere to the whole ceremony.”

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Jones has been doing standup comedy since 1987, so not many gigs scare her. “You just have to be ready for everything,” she says. “You have to have clean material, you have to have dirty material. You have to have all the material. If you are an all-around entertainer, especially as a comic, you have it already.”

Comedy aside, she does appreciate the theme of the event and what it stands for. “The impact that women have had on this whole world — we are half of the population. Let’s start there,” she begins. “We bring talent, we bring passion, we bring our heart, we bring our hard work, we bring our thoughts, our fears. We bring all of that. We bring just what the men bring. So that’s why it upsets me when we are not treated the same way. You know what I’m saying? … I want this for the whole society, to actually respect us as fucking humans.”

She thinks back to when she was filming “Ghostbusters” in 2016 alongside Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Chris Hemsworth. She would watch McCarthy and how she’d look out for herself on set, checking out the monitor and kindly but strongly telling director Paul Feig that she didn’t like an angle. “She was making sure that they are respecting her appearance on screen. And I loved it. And so now I do it when I’m on set, I’m like, ‘Do you got enough light over here? You notice the dark skin?’”

“So,” Jones says, “I still feel like the industry has a lot of catching up to do.”

Of the event, Variety CEO and group publisher, Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, says, “The Power of Women franchise continues to be one of our most highly anticipated events of the year. We are honored to celebrate outstanding women who continue to defy barriers and push the industry forward. We are grateful to our wonderful partners at Lifetime for their longstanding support.”