Leslie Jones hasn’t let go of a longstanding beef with a director at Saturday Night Live, who she now calls a “f---ing narcissistic dickhead.”
Speaking on the Toure Show podcast about her running “Kyle & Leslie” sketches about her fake relationship with fellow cast member Kyle Mooney, Jones said “the guy who would direct those was a f---ing a--hole.” She didn’t name the man in question, but whoever it was apparently almost risked a physical confrontation with both Jones and Tiffany Haddish in 2017 while filming the “Beck & Kyle” pre-tape for the sketch series.
“I don’t give a f--- if you see this,” she told the camera during the interview, addressing that director. “You still are probably a f---ing dickhead. A f---ing narcissistic dickhead.” Jones went on to describe the director as “one of them white boys who thought that he’s doing f---ing Shakespeare. No, this is a f---ing sketch. And you’re not funny.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Jones went on to say that she felt the director’s religious affiliation—she made a point to say he was Mormon—made him think less of her as a Black woman: “I can’t explain it, it’s like a way a person can look at you that you’re just like, ‘Yeah, I know you’re calling me a n-----.’”
She conceded that telling the story of how things got particularly heated one night would probably get her into “trouble,” but continued anyway, giving additional clues about the director’s identity by characterizing him as having a large “Adam’s apple” and being “tall enough” that the 6′0″ comedian had to bring her head up to meet his chin.
“We gotta come to work the next day and you’re still shooting this f---ing pre-tape!” Jones recalled of filming late into the night on a Friday before the cast would be returning to do the live show on Saturday. “So we’re like, what the f---? Like, why is it taking so f---ing long?”
Jones had also injured herself on set during the taping and was ready to leave to go rest—but the director had other plans. “I cut my arm with the wire that was in there, so my hands bleeding and s--t,” she said. “I’m like no, I’m going home. This motherf---er was like, ‘What makes you so f---ing special?’ And I was like, ‘Who the f--- you talkin’ to?’”
He didn’t back down from his comment, Jones said, and ultimately postured as if ready for a physical confrontation. “I was like ‘Walk the f--- away’... and he kept coming,” she continued. At that point, Haddish came out of her dressing room—she was hosting that week—and said, according to Jones, “‘What’s up, cuz? Who talking s--t? We about to f--- him up.’”
SNL fans on Reddit were quick to speculate that the director Jones was talking about is Oscar-winning actor Emma Stone’s husband Dave McCary. (The pair met at SNL in 2016.)
There’s no indication that McCary is a Mormon, though some users pointed out his family’s seventh-day adventist connection. He is, however, quite tall with a prominent Adam’s apple, started his career as part of a sketch comedy group with cast members Mooney and Bennett, and is well-known to have directed the pre-taped sketches Jones was referencing.
The Daily Beast reached out to McCary’s representative for comment and did not receive an immediate reply.
