Comedian Leslie Jones, one of the stars of the new all-female Ghostbusters, has sparked a wave of celebrity support after she shared some of the hateful attacks she had received from racist users on Twitter.
“I feel like I’m in a personal hell. I didn’t do anything to deserve this. It’s just too much. It shouldn’t be like this. So hurt right now,” she wrote, after exposing several of the abusive comments – many of which cruelly targeted her appearance and compared her to an ape.
The Ghostbusters cast – including Melissa McCarthy, Leslie, Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig – pictured at the premiere in Hollywood. Photo: Getty
The hate eventually saw the 48-year-old signing off the social media platform in “tears”, after pleading with Twitter to tighten up their content guidelines.
“I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart. All this cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the s—t I got today…wrong,” she continued.
The shocking nature of the comments sparked a flood of supportive celebrity and fan messages in response, many of them shared under the hashtag #LoveForLeslieJ.
Kiwi songstress Lorde – who met Leslie when she performed her hit ‘Magnets’ on Saturday Night Live last year – made it clear whose side she was on, tweeting, “@Lesdoggg was so cool to us when we played SNL. Lady is badass, beautiful & a MOVIE STAR, and you trolls live rent free at your mum’s house”.
Ghostbusters director Paul Feig was one of those who lead the charge in supporting Leslie, calling her “one of the greatest people” he knew.
Watch the Ghostbusters cast at the Hollywood premiere below – story continues after the video
“Any personal attacks against her are attacks against us all,” he wrote.
Elizabeth Banks, Amy Schumer, Anna Kendrick and more stars also rushed to defend Leslie using the #LoveForLeslieJ hashtag.
