While Ghostbusters has become a beloved classic, it was a source of hurt for star Ernie Hudson for years. Ghostbusters centers around the story of three parapsychologists as they come together to face off against ghosts after being fired from their posts at Columbia University. After meeting and hiring a fourth Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddemore (Hudson), the team is forced to face off against a god to save the world from devastation.
The massive success of Ghostbusters gave rise to many upcoming Ghostbusters movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, Hudson has never felt like he benefited from much of the accolades that the franchise has earned through the years. In an interview with IndieWire, he admitted that he felt excluded by the Ghostbusters marketing, which promoted the other three Ghostbusters and ignored him. Check out his quote below:
“I was the guy who was brought in, and so finding my place in the middle of that — and they 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 I very selectively was pushed aside. Ivan was really, really a brilliant man and I have just so much love and appreciation for him. 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. 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. It wasn’t an easy road. It was probably the most difficult movie I ever did just from the psychological perspective… 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 it. When you start out in the business, I was always told it’s almost impossible to succeed. But if you get in a major movie from a major studio and it comes out and it opens number one, it will change your career. Well, ‘Ghostbusters’ didn’t do any of that for me. I was working pretty nonstop, I did ‘Ghostbusters,’ and it was two and a half years before I got another movie.”
Winston Ignored As The Fourth Ghostbuster Explained
Unfortunately for Winston, he was the latecomer among the original Ghostbusters, who were all at least coworkers before putting together the Ghostbusters. Coming later in the film than the rest and not having as many lines as the others made him a target for the marketing materials to utterly ignore. While Ghostbusters 4 may have needed Hudson, he was also a smaller name among the other cast members in the first movie, which certainly didn’t help.
As the straight man of a comedy group, he also suffered as an outcast and earned less attention from marketing because of it. It can be difficult to remark on a typical businessman when he’s surrounded by clowns, which is something that certainly contributed to his lack of attention. Unfortunately, there was always too much going on to really focus on the man who was hired for a low-paying ghost-slaying job.
While Hudson may not want to call attention to it, race also likely played a factor in why he was excluded from marketing materials and future projects. Though Hudson may be thriving in the Quantum Leap reboot, the fact that Ghostbusters failed to propel his career the way it should have is likely race-related, given Hollywood’s reluctance to embrace him. Whatever the reason, Ghostbusters failed to highlight Winston and Hudson for years, and it took a toll on his mental health.
Source: IndieWire