‘It took me 10 years to get past it’: Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson says film made him suffer ‘psychologically’

Ernie Hudson, the actor who plays Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film franchise, has opened up about his negative experiences on the first film.

During an interview on The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show, Hudson said that while the director Ivan Reitman “was really, really a brilliant man and I have just so much love and appreciation for him”, he does not have fond memories of the studio, Columbia Pictures.

“I was the guy who was brought in, and so finding my place in the middle of that… they were all welcoming and inclusive,” Hudson said of the cast of the 1984 original. “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 I very selectively was pushed aside.”

He added: “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.”

The actor called Ghostbusters “the most difficult movie” he has ever done “from the psychological perspective”.

“The original script, Winston was in the very beginning of the movie,” he said.

“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 because I’m 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.”

The Independent has contacted Columbia Pictures for comment.

Hudson went on to reprise his role in numerous other Ghostbusters films, including 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The film also starred other original Ghostbusters castmembers Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver.