Amy Schumer Calls Out Leslie Jones' Twitter Trolls: 'It Was Just So Much Hate at Once'
Amy Schumer says she too has endured hate speech from Twitter users, much like what Leslie Jones spoke out against last month.
On an episode of Inside Amy Schumer last season, the show had a satirical sketch that introduced a new Twitter shortcut that would be a button called "I’m going to rape and kill you button." Schumer tells the Los Angeles Timesthat the idea came in reaction to all the social media trolls on the web.
The Trainwreck star admits that negative comments used to affect her, but she's grown some thick skin over the years. "In terms of the Internet, I feel pretty strong. I haven’t read a comment for a long time that has made me wince in any way. It’s more real-life stuff," she says. "But I remember how it feels. It feels like your new reality, like your biggest fear has come true. And then once they’ve come true, you have nothing to be scared of."
Schumer says she sympathizes with Jones, who was bombarded with racist, vile tweets upon starring in the summer blockbuster, Ghostbusters. "I feel like I'm in a personal hell. I didn't do anything to deserve this," Jones tweeted after retweeting some of the horrid messages aimed at her. "It's just too much. It shouldn't be like this. So hurt right now."
"Leslie is a friend and we talked about it. It was just so much hate at once. And you feel like it’s never-ending and it is the truth," Schumer says. "She was not used to it. I’ve had 10 years of people sending a lot of vitriol and it’s been spread out. For her, it hit like a ton of bricks. I told her, 'You’re going to come back and be like, ‘… you.’ And it’s going to make you stronger.'"
The 35-year-old star commends her friend for helping make a change on social media. "It took Leslie Jones to get [Twitter] to realize that people are banding together in a violent and dangerous way," Schumer explains. "And, you know, we can uphold our First Amendment and still protect people in a way that isn’t careless. I was really happy to see that."
While Jones jetted off to cover the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Schumer is busy promoting her new book, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo. She also spoke toTheNew York Times about her favorite reads, but was not too keen on the wildly popular erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey.
"I only made it three pages in. That feels mean to write, but I truly felt so alone," Schumer admits. "Everyone loved that book, and I couldn’t wait to get on the ride with them, but it was unreadable to me. I loved the movie, though, and have watched it several times."
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