Original Ghostbusters Star Ernie Hudson Claims He Was "Pushed Aside" In The Movie's Marketing: "It Took Me 10 Years To Get Past That"
Ernie Hudson claims he was "deliberately pushed aside" in the original 1984 Ghostbusters.
Hudson, 77, played specter fumigator Winston Zeddemore in the Ivan Reitman-directed horror-comedy, said his role was made to be smaller than it was intended be.
Speaking on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show, Hudson said, “The studio wasn’t [inclusive], and the studio continued not to be.
“So it made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it but then I very selectively was pushed aside … In 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.”
Out of sight: Ernie Hudson was omitted from the Ghostbusters' publicity campaign: He was not featured in the theatrical poster. He was again left out in the 30th-anniversary poster. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Despite not being included in the promos, Hudson is "so thankful" to the fans who identified with his character.
He continued: "When the posters came out, I’m not on the poster. 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.”
Hudson admits he never wants to "blame" anything on being Black, but it took him a good decade before he could "make peace" with what happened.
He said: “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 [being] Black. 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 took me 10 years to get past that and enjoy the movie and just embrace the movie. Ghostbusters was really hard to make peace with.”
Despite the slight, Hudson was still game enough to return for the 1989 sequel Ghostbusters II, a cameo in Paul Feig's 2016 all-female remake, and the Paul Rudd-starring 2021 reboot, Ghostbustbusters: Afterlife.
A follow-up to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with Gil Kenan (Monster House) as director, is currently slated for a Dec 20, 2023 release.
Hudson hopes his part in that movie is more substantial.
He added: “Even now, we’re negotiating a new movie that’s gearing up to start shooting in March, and I’m like, ‘Guys, there’s a place … I’m not an add-on.'
“So if I’m going to do it, it has to make sense.” — BANG SHOWBIZ
Photos: TPG News/Click Photos
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