After starring as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, Bill Murray made it pretty clear that he wasn’t ever going to strap on a proton pack again. He’s been supportive of Paul Feig’s all-ladies reboot since the beginning—his official stance in 2014: “I would watch it!”—but it seemed unlikely that Murray would have anything to do with the film, which stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon as the new team of ghostbusters. That all changed earlier this month, when it was announced that Bill Murray will indeed play a small part in the rebooted Ghostbusters. What changed his mind? According to Vulture, he just really loves Wiig and McCarthy.
Vulture also reports that Murray won’t be reprising his role as Peter Venkman, but rather is rumored to play someone trying to debunk the new bustin’ crew—a ghostbuster buster, if you will. Murray seems to have no regrets about taking the role: “You know, they were incredibly nice to ask me, and I really enjoyed being there,” Murray said. “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 also confirmed that it was true that he wasn’t previously interested in returning to the franchise. But it was the addition of Wiig and McCarthy—who Murray referred to as “a great hope”—to the new cast that swayed him. “I like those girls a lot,” he said. “I mean, I really do. They are tough to say no to. And Paul is a real nice fellow.”
So now Murray seems to think the new Ghostbusters is some real jolly good fun, even though his decision was not an easy one to make initially. “I thought about it for a very long time,” he told Vulture. “Like, many, many months. No, that’s not right. I was seriously thinking about this for years, really … 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].”
The cast and crew of Feig’s Ghostbusters have made it pretty clear that they don’t need the approval of Murray—or anyone, for that matter. But he obviously believes in what they’re doing, enough to reverse his Ghostbusters policy entirely.