Melissa McCarthy Responds to 'Ghostbusters' Online Haters: 'I Just Hope They Find a Friend'
The all-female Ghostbusters reboot already has broken a record, though this one is nothing to boast about.
The trailer for the remake of the 1984 comedy classic -- which stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones -- has become the most-disliked video on YouTube, with haters crawling out of the woodwork to whine about how watching women don proton packs and fight Slimer might destroy their entire life.
McCarthy opened up about the online vitriol in a recent interview with The Guardian, where she kept things classy, given that everyone from Kevin Smith to Donald Trump has weighed in with snarky criticism of her latest project.
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"All those comments — 'You're ruining my childhood!' I mean, really," the actress said. "Four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood? I have a visual of those people not having a Ben [Falcone, McCarthy's husband of 10 years], not having friends, so they're just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the internet. I just hope they find a friend."
In the new Ghostbusters film, McCarthy plays Abby Yates, a paranormal expert, though her typical movie roles tend to be a little less-buttoned down than Yates and more joyfully unhinged. (See: Bridesmaids' Megan, The Boss' Michelle Darnell, and the entirety of Tammy, to name a few.) The 45-year-old actress contends that critiques of those characters are just another form of sexism in the industry.
"People say to me, 'These characters are crazy', and I'm like, 'Are they?'" McCarthy exclaimed. "Because I've seen three people in a Rite Aid drugstore act like that. I think when a female character acts more defiant, it's seen as a little more crazy."
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"There are women in the world like this, we're just not used to seeing them portrayed," she added. "We generally just see The Pleasant Lady who stands behind her husband going 'Oh, Jack.' But I really love a female character who is not playing by the rules."
Dan Aykroyd, who starred in the first two Ghostbusters movies, praised the sequel. "As originator of the original: Saw test screening of new movie. Apart from brilliant, genuine performances from the cast both female and male, it has more laughs and more scares than the first two films plus Bill Murray is in it!" he said in a Facebook post. "As one of millions of man-fans and Ray Stantz, I'm paying to see that and bringing all my friends!"
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