Master impressionist Jay Pharoah is speaking for the first time about his departure from Saturday Night Live.
If missed the memo and have been wondering why Pharaoh hasn’t been seen on SNL in recent months, it’s because the show let him go last year. He’s been pretty silent about the matter since then, but he decided to open up in an interview with Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning.
According to Pharoah, a multitude of factors led to him being fired. One, he says that he refused to wear a dress. Two, he says they started to use his Obama character less, which makes sense, since he was leaving office.
“If you have multiple people on the cast saying things like, ‘You’re so talented,’ ‘You’re so able,’ ‘They don’t use you and it’s unfair and it’s making us feel bad,'” he said. “They put people into boxes. Whatever they want you to do, they expect you to do. I’m a little fiery too… I’m not a yes n***a.”
Three, he feels that he may got got too outspoken. Especially when it came to cast diversity. If you remember, he called out the show for not having enough of an African-American woman presence on the show. Shortly thereafter they did hire Leslie Jones. Even still, he feels the writing was on the wall from that point on.
Check out the interview below.
Photo: WENN.com
