Rick Moranis Really Didn’t Want to Be in the New ‘Ghostbusters’ Movies
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Inarguably one of the best parts of the original Ghostbusters was the nerdy accountant-turned-interdimensional sex monster Louis Tully, as played by the great Rick Moranis.
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But despite Hollywood’s stubborn insistence on reanimating every single pop-culture icon from your childhood (whether it’s a good idea or not), Louis Tully didn’t appear in the recent Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, nor was he in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. And Moranis didn’t make a cameo in Paul Feig’s 2016 reboot either, unlike other original cast members, including Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, who showed up in non-Ghostbuster roles such as “Cab Driver” and “Guy in Funny Hat Who Gets Murdered by a Winged Demon After Like Two Minutes.”
Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he and co-writer Jason Reitman “never wrote a role for Louis Tully in Frozen Empire,” adding, “We’ve got enough characters in this story.” But Kenan also implied that Louis was a part of their plans for Afterlife. And now one of the original Ghostbusters, Ernie Hudson, has confirmed that the filmmakers aggressively tried to woo Moranis back to the franchise.
In an interview with Screen Rant, Hudson revealed that even Ivan Reitman, before he passed away in 2022, tried to convince Moranis to return to the Ghostbusters-verse. Hudson also claimed that the producers went so far as to offer Moranis more money than he — one of the actual Ghostbusters — was being paid. But, not unlike a teenager in a ‘90s anti-drug PSA, Moranis “just said no.”
Hudson also called Moranis an “amazing talent” and remarked that he’d “love” to see him in another Ghostbusters entry, admitting that he’d be happy to pop by Moranis’ house and appeal to him in person if it would “make a difference.”
As fans are well aware, Moranis is by no means retired, but he has been on an extended hiatus from on-camera acting jobs since 1997 when his wife passed away and he opted to focus on raising his two kids. Moranis’ long public absence was even the subject of a 2020 telecom commercial starring Moranis and Ryan Reynolds.
The idea that Moranis might reprise his Ghostbusters character didn’t seem quite so crazy in recent years, considering that he agreed to appear alongside Josh Gad in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids reboot Shrunk (which may never actually happen) and voiced Dark Helmet from Spaceballs for an episode of The Goldbergs.
But the reason why Moranis isn’t interested in making another Ghostbusters film was made very clear by Moranis himself. During a 2015 interview he confessed that the idea of doing a short cameo in a Ghostbusters project didn’t “appeal” to him. “I hope it’s terrific. But it just makes no sense to me,” Moranis said of the 2016 Ghostbusters. “Why would I do just one day of shooting on something I did 30 years ago?”
Yes, apparently Moranis is the only actor working today who won’t mindlessly recreate something from 30 years ago just for a giant paycheck.
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