Dan Aykroyd, one of the original Ghostbusters, is defending 2016’s all-female reboot of Ghostbusters, which was met with racist and sexist criticism from online trolls following its debut.
The actor and screenwriter, who starred as Dr. Ray Stantz in the 1984 movie as well as penned the script, opened up in a recent interview with People about his appreciation for the entire franchise, including the Paul Feig-directed installment starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
“I liked the movie Paul Feig made with those spectacular women,” Aykroyd said. “I was mad at them at the time because I was supposed to be a producer on there and I didn’t do my job and I didn’t argue about costs. And it cost perhaps more than it should, and they all do. All these movies do.”
“But boy, I liked that film,” the Saturday Night Live alum continued. “I thought that the villain at the end was great. I loved so much of it. And of course, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones and Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, you’re never going to do better than that. So I go on the record as saying I’m so proud to have been able to license that movie and have a hand and have a part in it, and I’m fully supportive of it, and I don’t besmirch it at all. I think it works really great amongst all the ones that have been made.”
The cast of the 2016 reboot have previously spoken out about the hateful comments they received, including McCarthy and Jones. The latter recalled the “online abuse” in her memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones, last year, saying she “got taken through the ringer.”
“Why are people being so evil to each other? How can you sit and type ‘I want to kill you.’ Who does that?” Jones added in her memoir. “Sad keyboard warriors living in their mother’s basements hated the fact that this hallowed work of perfect art now featured — gasp! horror! — women in the lead roles. Worst of all, of course, was that one of the lead characters was a Black woman. For some men this was the final straw.”
At the time, the Coming 2 America star also slammed Jason Reitman, the director of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, for saying he was “not making the Juno of Ghostbusters movies” and was “trying to go back to original technique and hand the movie back to the fans.”
Though Reitman later clarified that his comments “came out wrong,” Jones wrote in her memoir that “the damage was done.”