Leslie Jones Tells Whoopi Goldberg ‘I Love You From My Heart and My Soul’

SNL actress Leslie Jones appeared on The View Thursday promoting her new film, Ghostbusters. One of the hosts, Candace Cameron Bure, mentioned that she’d heard Jones was a fan of cohost Whoopi Goldberg.

“Ok, I’m gonna do this without trying to get emotional,” Jones said. She explained that loved listening to and watching comedy growing up. “The day that I saw Whoopi Goldberg on television, I cried so hard, because I kept looking at my daddy going, ‘Oh my God! There’s somebody on TV that looks like me!'” Jones said. “‘I can be on TV! I can do it! Look at her, look at her! She looks just like me.'”

She told Goldberg that her dad recorded the comedy special for her and Jones would watch it “every day after school.”

“I just wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Jones said to Goldberg. “Because now I know what I’m doing when I put on that ‘Ghostbusters’ suit, and little girls see me on TV now, now they’re gonna go, ‘I can do it.’ You gave me that.” She thanked Goldberg for her contributions to comedy and for “what you’ve done for black women.”

Jones has been candid about her struggles getting her career started. “As soon as I touched the mic I knew that’s what I would do for the rest of my life,” she told People in an exclusive interview. But she said she had long periods of self-doubt, coupled with insecurities about her looks.

“I love you from my heart and my soul,” Jones said to Goldberg. She later tweeted that Goldberg was her “shero.”

Watch the full segment from The View below.