Ernie Hudson is reflecting on his time in the original Ghostbusters movie, telling Howard Stern recently that it took him “10 years to get past,” as he felt “pushed aside” by the film’s studio. Hudson starred as Winston Zeddemore alongside Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Dan Aykroyd in the movie.
“The studio wasn’t inclusive, and the studio continued not to be,” he said. “So it made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it but then I very selectively was pushed aside … 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.”
The Crow actor continued, commenting on how he wasn’t featured in the movie’s posters, despite being one of the four ghostbusters: “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 added, “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.”