A few weeks ago, we reported that Bill Murray was going to make an appearance the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot headed up by Paul Feig. This left many of us wondering, why did he do it after turning down so many other Ghostbusters revivals in the past? Was the check finally big enough? Did he misread the director’s name again? Does busting just make him feel good? Turns out, he just wanted to give the project his approval and blessings.
In an interview with Vulture, he spoke very positively about the group behind the film, featuring headlining actresses Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, who Murray claims to be a fan of.
“You know, they were incredibly nice to ask me,” says Murray. “And I really enjoyed being there, they have such a jolly group, and they are going to have great success with this project. I didn’t want to overshadow [them] or anything, and I feel really good about it.”
Murray is going to appear in the movie not as a reprising Ghostbuster, but instead as a nosy skeptic who sets out to debunk the girls and prove them wrong. It should certainly be a noteworthy cameo and fits well with the actor’s infamous trickster personality, but he certainly didn’t accept the invitation to the project without a good reason.
“I thought about it for a very long time…” Murray recounts. “It kept eating at me, and I really respect those girls. And then I started to feel like if I didn’t do this movie, maybe somebody would write a bad review or something, thinking there was some sort of disapproval [on my part].”
This certainly makes a lot of sense since Murray is well known for refusing to take part in previous attempts at revitalizing Ghostbusters just because he didn’t feel like it was up to snuff. He even turned down Ghostbusters 3 script from Dan Akyroyd just because he didn’t feel like it was done right.
Perhaps if Ghostbusters fans know that Paul Feig’s version is the version that Bill Murray finally feels does the property justice, they can rest easy in their comfy theater seats and enjoy the movie in peace.
