'I don't get reboots, why not just make another movie?'

As he returns in the Ghostbusters sequel 'Frozen Empire', Ernie Hudson speaks to Louis Chilton about reboots, Dan Aykroyd's spiritual side and why racism wasn't the main reason his character played second fiddle in the original film

Ernie Hudson sits under a bright light, cameras pointed squarely at him. The Ghostbusters star shot to fame in 1984 as the fourth member of the iconic ghoul-fighting quartet, alongside Dan

Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. Today, he’s seated for a round of interviews to speak about the latest sequel – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which sees his character, Winston Zeddemore, return as a philanthropist masterminding a new generation of paranormal pest-removers. “It’s been 40 years. Over half my life has been Ghostbusters on some level or other,” he tells me – but he’s got no problem with that. “I’ve been acting close to 60 years and there are some films I’ve made that I hope they never even think about making again.”

Legs crossed in a kind of sanguine, confident recline, Hudson looks almost preposterously good for 78 – you’d swear he still had 50 years of petrol left in the tank. In the scheme of things, Ghostbusters makes up just a small part of Hudson’s career; he’s been working steadily for nearly all his adult life, in projects such as the Brandon Lee thriller The Crow, HBO’s gritty prison drama Oz, and FBI comedy Miss Congeniality. But Ghostbusters, understandably, looms over it all.

“Most things come and go,” he says. “Not a lot of people noticed that I was in three films last year. But it’s just a job. It doesn’t give you special status. I haven’t been so successful, like some friends who can barely walk down the street or made so much money that they can’t count it. I’m still a working guy.”