Bill Murray Says Wearing Proton Pack for Ghostbusters: Afterlife “Was Physically Painful”

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, movie fans are having to wait a bit longer than they may have hoped for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but when it does finally hit theaters — and the film is currently set for release on November 11th — it sounds like it will be a film on par with the original Ghostbusters, at least according to Bill Murray. Murray, who has been involved with every iteration of the Ghostbusters films, recently opened up about how the upcoming film has the same feel as the first film and revealed that making Ghostbusters: Afterlife was physically painful when it came to wearing the proton pack.

During a conversation as part of the 36th Santa Barbara International Film Festival where Murray was awarded the Maltin Modern Master Award recently (via Collider), Murray spoke about Jason Reitman’s “really wonderful idea” for Afterlife and explained just how hard it was making the film.

“Ivan’s son, Jason, did one. I remember him calling me and saying, ‘I’ve got an idea for another Ghostbusters. I’ve had this idea for years.’ I thought, ‘What the heck could that possibly be?’ I remember him when he was a kid. I remember his Bar Mitzvah. I was like, ‘What the heck? What does this kid know?’” Murray said. “But he had a really, really wonderful idea that he wrote with another wonderful guy that I got to work with, Gil Kenan, who made City of Ember. The two of them wrote a Ghostbusters movie that really brings it back to life. It really has the feel of the first one, more than the second one or the girls’ one. It has a different feel than two out of four.”

He went on to talk about the physically painful aspect of wearing the proton pack, as well as assured that despite the delays, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be worth the wait.

“I think he’s really got something. It was hard. It was really hard. That’s why I think it’s gonna be good. We were just in it for a little while, but it was physically painful,” Murray said. “Wearing those packs is extremely uncomfortable. We had batteries the size of batteries. They now have batteries the size of earrings. It’s still a really heavy thing to wear, all the time. The special effects in this one are a lot of wind and dirt in your face, and there was a lot of going down and getting back up. I was like, ‘What is this? What am I doing? These are like Bulgarian deadlifts, or a Russian kettlebell, getting up and down with this thing on my back.’ It was very uncomfortable. Usually, when something has a very high misery quotient, something comes of that and some quality is produced that, if you can capture it and project it, comes on the screen and affects you. I think it comes out sometime in the fall. They’ve delayed it for a year or a year and a half, but I’m glad they did. It will be worth seeing.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife hits theaters on November 11th.

What do you think about Murray’s comments? What is your favorite Ghostbusters film? Let us know in the comments.