Leslie Jordan says Instagram posts are his way of helping amid pandemic: 'I gotta do my part'
Actor Leslie Jordan used to be best known for his role in the sitcom "Will & Grace" and various characters in "American Horror Story," but these days he's known for his new-found insta-fame.
The 64-year-old Chattanooga, Tennessee, native began chronicling his quarantine experience at his mother's home in mid-March and the videos quickly went viral.
Jordan told "The View" co-hosts on Friday that he wanted to help make people laugh and smile during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Because we're locked down, hunkered down here, I just didn't have anything to do," Jordan said. "I thought well, I can't go out and be an emergency services person I gotta do my part and what do I do? The only thing I know how to do is be funny – that's it."
After posting a few videos about how he's spending his time "hunkered down," he shared a story about how friends tried to let him know he was "going viral."
"I said, 'No honey I'm fine. I'm at home. I'm in Tennessee,'" Jordan said on "The View" about his response to the news of going viral. "I looked and I had three million followers – three million!"
Despite his large following, Jordan didn't know what Instagram was a year ago. With the help of some friends from "The Cool Kids" show, he joined the social media platform in September, 2018.
"I had 20,000 followers and I treasured that," Jordan said of his initial following on Instagram. "People'd say, 'Oh that's nothing.' I said, 'What are you crazy? That's 20,000 people that wanna hear what I gotta say!'"
One year later, his "Will & Grace" co-star Megan Mullally shared one of Jordan's posts on her own page that increased his following to 80,000. "I woke up with 80,000 and it stayed that way," Jordan said.
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