Ernie Hudson has leveled allegations against the studio that produced the action comedy Ghostbusters (1984). In an interview with SiriusXM’s Gary Dell’Abate and Rahsaan Rogers on The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show, the 77-year-old called the classic film “the most difficult movie” he’s ever worked on “just from a psychological point of view.” According to Hudson, the studio gradually slimmed down his role — until he ended up not even appearing on the film’s posters.
“Then I was deliberately pushed aside”
“I was the one that was brought in, so I had to find my place in the middle — and they were all welcoming and inclusive,” the actor recalled of the moment he joined the cast. “The studio wasn’t, and the studio still wasn’t. That made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it, but then I was deliberately pushed aside.”
In addition, the actor and police sergeant said that “Ghostbusters” – unlike his co-stars – did not cause a career leap for him. “When you start out in this business, I’ve always been told that it’s almost impossible to succeed,” says Hudson. “But if you’re in a big movie by a big studio and it comes out and it’s number one, it’s going to be a career change. Well, Ghostbusters didn’t do any of that for me. I worked pretty non-stop, I did Ghostbusters, and it was two and a half years before I got another movie.”
“It took me 10 years to get over that”
Hudson concluded, “If anything bad happens to you as an African American in this country, you can always blame it on my being Black. I don’t want that. That’s the last thing I want to do… I don’t have anything bad to say about anyone, but it was hard. It took me 10 years to get over that and enjoy the film and just embrace it. It was really hard to make peace with ‘Ghostbusters’.”
“Ghostbusters” is one of the most successful science fiction comedies of the 1980s. The film by Ivan Reitman tells the story of the three unsuccessful para-psychologists Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond “Ray” Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), who then become self-employed as ghost hunters. Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) later joins as the fourth ghostbuster. The film grossed $291.6 million worldwide, making it one of the top ten grossing films of all time.