Leslie Jones Ghostbusters

Last week, Columbia Pictures unleashed the trailer for this summer’s highly anticipated film ‘Ghostbusters’ which is, of course, a reboot of the classic 1984 movie that starred comedic giants Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as well as newcomer (at the time) Ernie Hudson.  As was evident in the new trailer, the new film follows the former’s pattern by having three academics (who happen to be Caucasian) who are then joined by a fourth African American member who isn’t from a scientific background.  In this case, Leslie Jones plays Patty Tolan, an MTA worker who joins the other three, Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert, Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates and Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzman, because Patty “knows New York.”

And then the internet reacted in the typical outraged manner.  Why does the one black member have to be an MTA worker and not another scientist?!  Has there been no progress since 1984?!

Jones herself was quick to strike back, defending her character on Twitter. She then followed up, expressing her exhaustion of the constant negativity online, saying:



Now the film’s director, Paul Feig has also entered the fray, lashing back at critics. First he publicly reached out to Jones in a show of support:

And then he took on those that had expressed their frustrations via Twitter, saying:

To be honest, I’m not sure the majority of negative tweets were attacks on Jones herself but questions as to why the one minority character was depicted as an average person off the street, instead of another scientist.

But then again, none of us has even seen the movie, so we have no idea what role anyone plays in the overall story, which is inspired by the original but not an exact remake.  Then again, asking the internet to reserve judgement is like asking rain not to be wet.  Good luck!

It’s just sad that Jones, a relatively new figure in the public eye– she just joined the cast of ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2014 and this is her first major film role– feels attacked on a personal level over what should be the most exciting thing to happen in her career thus far.

What do you think?  Should everyone back off until we see the film?  Or is this another unfair depiction on Hollywood’s part?

‘Ghostbusters’ will be busting into theaters on July 15, 2016.

Source: People