I recall seeing on TV many years ago a report claiming that the character of Winston in **Ghostbusters **was added as a result of pressure from a group of Black activists, and that the change was made during production. According to the report, this group specialised in disrupting Hollywood productions over what might be called “race issues”.
The IMDb claims that the role was intended for Eddie Murphy, but (to refer back to another thread) the character does seem rather tacked-on, as if he were an afterthought.
Is any of this true? Even if false, is it a popular myth?
Winston is a straight man with maybe two funny lines. Eddie Murphy would have been horribly underutilized (unless they allowed him to improvise on-camera). If his role was intended for Eddie, they must’ve gutted his part by the time it got to Ernie Hudson.
I think it’s likelier that Eddie Murphy – who just come off BIG B.O. hits with his debut movie, 48 Hours and Trading Places – probably passed on the part and took the big money role in Best Defense opposite Dudley Moore instead of a second-tier role in Ghostbusters. IIRC, Eddie said it was a shitty script when he read for it, but that he found it hard to say no to all the millions they were offering him.
Black Hollywood is small and pretty insular. When the actors themselves boycott the Academy Awards and protest the treatment of black actors it’s one thing, but I kinda doubt that an outside group (when I hear “black activist” that seems to imply an outside group, like the Hollywood branch of the NAACP) disrupting productions on their behalf would have been tolerated very long. I suspect the last part is myth, although I’d be curious to see anyone credibly cite otherwise.
I do know that Ackroyd wrote (or co-wrote) the original script intending it to be a vehicle for himself and John Belushi. Belushi spoiled this plan by dying, thereby forcing several rewrites, and altering the career trajectories of a lot of people in Hollywood.
According to the DVD commentary, Ivan Reitman and Aykroyd decided that there had to be a “common man” on the team to explain all the technology to (the thinking being that the three doctors wouldn’t need it explained.)
So basically, Winston exists to facilitate the explanation of all the doodads the Ghostbusters carry, etc.
And let’s not forget that the animated Winston was voiced by Arsenio Hall.
This is what I’ve heard to, that Winston was a plot device for the benefit of the audience, so the other 'Busters could explain their technology to the new guy. He had to be a member who wasn’t there from the beginning, and who did not share a science background.
I always imagined the characters of Rogue and Wolverine in the first X-Men movie served the same purpose, to be new members of the X-Men team so they could be given a tour of the mansion, listen to a speech with the team’s reason for existing, ask questions, and so forth, to explain to the audience at the same time.
Oh, I wasn’t saying that was the ONLY reason for including them. It wouldn’t have been an X-Men movie without Wolverine! But it served the plot well to have them as the confused new members, especially with Wolverine knowing as little about his past as he did anyway.
brianjedi and Voodoo Lou. Uh… what was explained to Winston other than how to unload the traps? The bulk of the scientific explanations for the equipment were already established before Winston showed up halfway through the movie. Later the EPA guy gets the explanation for how the ghosts are contained in the storage unit and then much later, the Ghostbusters reverse themselves on crossing the streams.
Winston was tacked on because the original three Ghostbusters were overworked and needed more manpower, according to the plot. The scientific explanation thing was worked out, more often than not, by explaining things to parapsychologist Dr. Venkman (Bill Murray), who often demanded that Drs. Spengler and Stanz explain things to him simply.
Having seen the movie probably in excess of 500 times, I know that. I’m just repeating what the director said on the commentary. Personally, I think they stuck him in there because they needed a fourth guy during the latter half of the movie when they’re all running around.
I’m merely pointing out that the director’s explanation for including Winston doesn’t really jibe with what was eventually seen onscreen unless his role was whittled down from an earlier version or there’s extra scenes in that Ghostbusters DVD expanding his role that I’ve never seen.
I like Ernie Hudson, and Winston Zeddemore is one of a few positive heroic black movie characters I could look up to in the 1980s (and isn’t that sad?) – but there’s almost nothing original he contributed to the movie except, perhaps, a working man’s cynicism (“As long as there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you want.”), bringing up Biblical Revelations ("… the reason we’ve been so busy lately is that the dead have been rising from the grave.") and a goofy racial quip (“I have see shit that will turn you white!”) Maybe Eddie Murphy could have brought some more heat to the role, but the character didn’t have much fire, wasn’t particularly heroic and had too few lines.
The librarian ghost, the floating ghost woman who evidently gave Dr. Stanz an invisible hummer, the cab driver corpse… Let’s not forget when the Titanic finally docked…
… I’m taking this waaaaaay too seriously, he realizes as he typed mid-stroke…
I think that, alone, is enough. Let’s remember, when you take Winston out of the movie, the remaining Ghostbusters are all loonies in their own way. Venkman’s an unabashed con artist, Stanz has a mind so broad you can secure hats with it, and Egon’s living in a universe perpendicular to our own. Winston’s the only “sane” person in the lot, and that helps the audience identify with the team instead of simply laughing at them.
Admittedly, it would have been nice if he was introduced earlier in the movie, but plotwise there isn’t a place to fit him in earlier that would’t (a) feel contrived or (b) throw the story off its rails.
Phil Farrand, author of the "Nitpicker’s Guide"s, called something similar to this a “Cabbage Head” plot device. (Referring to the “cabbages” in the audience who have to be explained to.)
By telling the story from Wolverine’s perspective as a jaded and sarcastic outsider, Singer also managed to effectively defuse a lot of the essential silliness of superhero movies without resorting to cheap campiness: Professor Xavier, in Patrick Stewart’s best RADA voice, “Welcome to Cerebro.” Wolverine ripostes, in scornfully bored tones, “It’s a…really big round room.”