Leslie Jones was down to flame homeowners over the condition of their rental properties on her new HGTV series, Roast My Rental, but the comedian knew she had to handle each situation delicately.
“You’re talking to civilians that are not used to a lot,” the Saturday Night Live alum, 58, exclusively tells Us about the challenges of “holding back” her critiques. “So you had to learn how to, just not tell them completely that it’s disgusting, but tell them that it’s disgusting.”
While filming the reality show, Jones saw a lot of homes with features that she “will never forget,” including a bathroom with carpet and a tent on the roof.
“Those are the two things that I was like, y’all gotta be insane,” she recalls. “There’s no way I would walk into a rental and see carpet in the bathroom and not walk directly out, ’cause I’m gonna get halitosis from your carpet.”
Jones added that there were multiple instances where she was concerned about her well-being while in some homes.
“One of them I walked in, [and] I was like, ‘I have to leave this house because particles are getting on me, and I’m gonna die,’” she quipped.
When giving feedback to the homeworkers, Jones shared that they were receptive to her suggestions.
“They knew … especially the 20-year-old carpet and carpeting,” she reflects. “They know, but like I said, these families don’t have the money, and some of them are older, and they don’t have where they used to do it themselves. They can’t do it anymore.”
Jones adds that some people had a lot of “pride” and vowed they could handle the issues themselves. However, the actress had to gently tell some people that certain issues needed professional assistance.
“Seople are going, ‘I can fix myself,’ and you go, ‘No, you can’t. Duct tape does not fix [it].’ You know what I mean?” she shares. “Like, covering it up with paint. You put a curtain in front of a mistake. What happens when I open up the curtain? The mistake is still there.”
Jones explains when she got the offer to host Roast My Rental, it was an “instant yes” and something she could do in her “sleep.” On top of getting to critique the homes, Jones also gets to help designer Jasmine Roth renovate the properties.
While some conversations were difficult, getting to see some people’s lives change completely from her and Roth’s work was rewarding.
“You get a lot of people’s lives literally changing,” she says. “You can see their brain working like, ‘Oh, wow, we didn’t know you were gonna do all of this’ [or] ‘We didn’t think this was gonna turn out like this.’”
Roast My Rental premieres on Friday, July 24, at 10 p.m. ET on HGTV and will be available to stream the next day on HBO Max.
