The high-pressure, fast-paced world of “Saturday Night Live” can be an intimate experience, and it’s produced many offscreen duos, creative partners, and close friends alike. Case in point: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis, and Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. They joined the NBC late-night sketch comedy show in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and quickly developed a mutual admiration society appearing in many sketches alongside each other, which only got stronger during production on the 2016 “Ghostbusters” movie. “Leslie and I have worked together for two years at ‘SNL.’ We were very close by the time we got there to film and got so much closer, pathologically closer over the course of the summer in fact,” McKinnon told Refinery29. McKinnon’s involvement in the movie is a big part of why Jones agreed to co-star. “I had some doubts in the beginning, but after I saw who was cast and who was directing, I didn’t have any,” Jones added.
Jones has often singled out McKinnon for praise on her Twitter feed. Around the time of the “SNL” season finale episode in May 2018, Jones posted a video of McKinnon dancing and called her “MY B**** FOR LIFE!!!” A year later, when Jones departed “SNL,” she thanked cast members for their creativity, comedy, and humanity, especially McKinnon. “I will miss Kate’s loving hugs and talks when I needed,” Jones wrote.