Ernie Hudson opens up about the psychological effect ghost hunters had on him.
In an interview with SiriusXM’s Gary Dell’Abate and Rahsaan Rogers on Howard Stern’s Closing Show, Hudson explained that while he had so much love and appreciation for Ivan Reitman and his fellow Ghostbusters, the studio was a different story.
“I was the guy who was brought in, and so I found my place in the middle of that — and they were all welcoming and inclusive,” the actor recalled upon joining the cast. “The studio was not, and the studio continued not to be. So that made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it, but then I got sidelined very selectively.
Hudson shared an example on the radio show of how the studio wasn’t very supportive, pointing out that he wasn’t on movie posters when they came out.
“It took a while. I went to the 30th anniversary release of the movie and all the posters are three guys,” he continued. “Now I know fans see things differently, and I’m so grateful to the fans because the fans basically identified with Winston, especially the young people, I don’t mean minority kids, but a lot of kids.”
The actor explained that with ongoing negotiations for a new ghost hunters film set to begin filming in March, he’s making sure it’s not considered an “add-on”.
“If I want to do this, it has to make sense,” Hudson said. “When you start out in the business, I was always told that it was almost impossible to succeed. But if you walk into a major movie from a major studio and it comes out and opens number one, it will change your career. GOOD, ghost hunters did none of that for me. I was working pretty non-stop, I made it ghost huntersand it took two and a half years before I got another movie.
He went on to explain that Winston’s role in the film changed between when he received the script and when they started filming. In the beginning, his character was introduced at the very beginning. By the time production kicked off, Winston was halfway there.
“It was not an easy road. ghost hunters, I would say it was probably the most difficult movie I’ve ever done psychologically,” he continued. “All of that stuff… It was definitely deliberate. And I still don’t try to take it personally.
Hudson concluded, “Anything bad, if you’re African American in this country, anything that happens to you is bad, you can always blame it because I’m black. You don’t want to go there. It’s the last thing I want to do… I have nothing bad to say about anyone, but it was hard. It took me 10 years to get over that and appreciate the movie and just embrace the movie. ghost hunters was really hard to make peace with that.
