Leslie Jones took a walk down memory lane on Thursday’s episode of The Tonight Show .
While discussing her upcoming standup tour dates, host Jimmy Fallon said that comedians hand out headshots when trying to book gigs. “I’m sorry Leslie, but we’ve got a couple of your headshots from when you first started,” revealed Fallon. After taking a sip from her coffee mug, Jones said, “That’s so hilarious.”
Jones was a fan of the first headshot Fallon pulled out and asked if she could keep it before explaining the photo. “First of all, I look older than I do now,” she said. “Second, I literally was like I think I was I wanna say 32, something maybe. I’m not sure. But I got my hair braided by this girl that lived in my building and when I went to go take the headshot, cause it was like you are special. It was at this photo place and I think he was charging me $90 for like 100 shots and I was like, ‘Yes!'”
“So when I was choosing my outfit I was like, ‘What would Whoopi wear?’ she said of her ensemble. “Because I want to be what Whoopi is and so I chose the schoolteacher jacket. I look like I sell insurance and cosmetics. Like I got a Mary Kay line.”
The next headshot shows Jones smiling and pointing her fingers at the camera. “I look so damn corny,” she said. “First of all, my thumb is about five inches long. So many gay men approached me about my thumb. I have lived, baby!”
Jones then revealed that the shot was taken by her then-hairdresser. “I took it right out in front of her shop and that was my headshot for 15 years, at least.”
The Saturday Night Live star cut off Fallon before he could ask about the next photo, in which she appears overly eager while clad in all-white with a matching backdrop. “Okay, so let me explain,” she began. “I was doing some new headshots and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know the dude was taking the shots. He was testing the camera and I was like,” she said before showing off some poses with large smiles.
“When I saw this I was like, ‘This bitch is crazy,'” she said. “It’s my favorite headshot of all time.”
The final photo showed Jones wearing a white kimono while in a karate stance. “Let me explain something to you,” she said. “When I took this picture, I swear to God, I would’ve put money on it that I was about to blow up.”
“I was like, ‘How do you not look at this headshot and tell that this girl is creative,'” she said. “I had just came back from Tokyo and had bought one of them little swap meet kimonos. And in my hair, I got chopsticks in my hair.” She continued, “And then I was like, ‘Oh my God, if I do my hands they’re gonna be like: She’s an action star.'”
She then held up the headshot and said, “Look at this! Why would you not put this in a movie?” She then explained that she thought the particular headshot would jumpstart her career. “I sent this to Lorne Michaels and I was like, ‘I had some good headshots’ and he was like, ‘This one not so much.'”
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Watch the full segment above.
