Jay Pharoah believes that he’s more than just impressions, but Saturday Night Live didn’t want his jokes—the show wanted his voices until it didn’t, and then SNL let him go.
Pharoah’s Barack Obama impersonation was pitch-perfect, but once the president left office, the sketch-comedy show apparently didn’t see much of a need for the funny man.
“I was like, ‘Just let me do my character and we’ll be fine.’ [They] didn’t want to do that,” he told Hot 97 host Pete Rosenberg, the New York Daily News reports.
“You go where you’re appreciated,” he said of his departure in August before the current season began. “They put people into boxes. Whatever they want you to do, they expect you to do. And I’m fiery, too ... I’m not a ‘yes nigga.’ That’s not me.”
Pharoah, who was on the show for six years, added that he almost got fired sooner for trying to get the show to hire more black women as writers.
“I was at the audition, and I think, me speaking up, they were ready to get rid of me in 2013, September,” Pharoah said, adding that he was the reason Leslie Jones was hired.
“I am the reason it happened,” he said.
Pharoah noted that his career is just fine without the iconic show. He’s slated to star alongside Jamie Foxx in the Showtime comedy White Famous. He also said that he holds no ill will toward showrunner Lorne Michaels.
“I met Lorne Michaels and I ain’t been broke ever since,” Pharoah said in his best Chris Rock voice.
Watch the full interview below: