When it comes to general sentiment about Ivan Reitman’s 1984 supernatural comedy “Ghostbusters,” it’s one of widespread love, adoration and often great childhood memories for a whole generation.
For one of its stars though, their feelings towards the film are a bit more complicated and conflicted. In an interview with SiriusXM’s Gary Dell’Abate and Rahsaan Rogers on “The Howard Stern Wrap-Up Show,” actor Ernie Hudson spoke about the psychological impact the film had on him.
The “Congo” and “L.A.’s Finest” actor, who played Winston Zedmore in the film, currently stars in NBC’s “Quantum Leap” revival which was recently renewed for a second season. He says that he has much love and appreciation for “Ghostbusters,” its director Ivan Reitman, his fellow co-stars and the film’s many fans.
The studio on the other hand allegedly had issues. Whilst his three co-stars already had some hit films under their belt working together. Hudson by that point had numerous supporting roles in films and guest spots in shows but was mostly an unknown. It sounds like the studio didn’t let him forget it and it got bad enough it took him years after the film’s release to make peace with what happened:
“I was the guy who was brought in, and so finding my place in the middle of that – and they [the cast & crew] were all welcoming and inclusive. The studio wasn’t, and the studio continued not to be. So it made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it, but then very selectively I was sort of pushed aside.
It took a long time. I went to the 30th-anniversary release of the movie and… all the posters are three guys. Now I know the fans see it differently, and I’m so thankful for the fans because the fans basically identified with Winston, especially young, I don’t want to say minority kids, but a lot of kids.”
He says the role of Winston in the movie changed by the time of filming with the Winston character sidelined. In addition, despite the success of the film, it didn’t change his career and in fact, it took him nearly three years to get another feature despite having steadily done multiple films every year for the prior seven years:
“It wasn’t an easy road. Ghostbusters, I would say, it was probably the most difficult movie I ever did just from the psychological perspective. The original script, Winston was in the very beginning of the movie. By the time we got ready to shoot the movie, Winston came in halfway through the movie. All those things…It definitely felt deliberate.
And I’m still not trying to take it personally. Anything bad, if you’re African American in this country, anything bad happens to you, you can always blame it on ‘oh because I’m Black, that happened’. You don’t want to go there. That’s the last thing I want to do.
I got nothing bad to say about anybody, but it was hard. It was hard for a long time. It took me ten years to get past that and just embrace the movie and enjoy the movie. Ghostbusters was really hard to make peace with.”
The actor adds that with current negotiations for a new “Ghostbusters” that is set to begin filming in March, he is making sure he won’t be classified as an ‘add-on’ this time: “If I’m going to do it, it has to make sense”.
Check out the interview for yourself below.
