Ghostbusters' Ernie Hudson Interview

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Well, everyone needs a hobby. And one that doesn't involve leaving the house is probably preferable if going out in public means you have to put up with people shouting, "Who you gonna call?" at your Dad every eight minutes.

"Yeah, there's always someone shouting that, like I've never heard it before," Hudson says. "I notice now the kids don't like going out. I'll say, 'Hey, let's go to the beach!', and they'll say, 'Nah, there's going to be a lot of people there.' Because when there's a lot of people, they tend to intrude."

Hudson has plenty of stories about being recognised, and they're all told with a sense of humour - despite the fact it doesn't sound like being a Ghostbuster is much fun sometimes. Take the time he tried to visit the Statue of Liberty with his kids. He was spotted on the Staten Island ferry by a man who then ran round the boat shouting, 'Hey! The guy from Ghostbusters is on there!'

"So I spent the whole time going to the island signing autographs and stuff," says Hudson. "Then when the boat docked the guy ran off the ship going, 'Hey! It's the guy from Ghostbusters!', and more people came over. So I never left the dock. The kids ended up going there without me."

Then there were all the times he had to answer his door to strangers, before he moved to a gated community in LA. "People [in the neighbourhood] would say to visitors, 'Hey, you seen that movie Ghostbusters? You know that black guy? He lives at number 1076. He's really nice, you should go by and say hello.'"

Because Hudson really is really nice, he'd open the door and say hello back - but it all got too much. "Sometimes people just want to talk about the marshmallow man, and that's cool. But it's not a conversation you want to have at your door, with people you don't know, at 11 o'clock at night."

If this game does well perhaps Ernie will be able to star in a tie-in for The Hand That Rocks the Cradle next.

Still, sounds like Hudson accepts intrusions as part of the price you pay for being in a hugely successful film. He also accepts the fact he'll always be remembered as the fourth Ghostbuster, although he had a much bigger part in the original script. "I was the guy who got slimed in the hotel, but I guess the studio felt they wanted more stuff for Bill Murray," Hudson reveals. "I was the guy who thought of the marshmallow man on the rooftop, but then it became Danny [Akroyd]'s character."

It was only after he won the part of Winston that the decision was made to reduce the character's role. "And they didn't do that till the day before we started shooting, so I didn't have time to adjust," Hudson says. "Yeah, when the part was cut there was some frustrating stuff associated with that. But it was what it was, and it is what it is. 24 years later, people still like the movie, and I'm glad."

Perhaps we'll see more of Winston in the Ghostbusters game, which is due out this autumn. It'll feature voiceovers by all four of the movie's stars, a script by Dan Akroyd and 75 minutes of music originally scored for the films but never used. Sierra is billing it as the sequel that was never made. Which makes you wonder why they never did make a third film...

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