'Ghostbusters' Star Bill Murray Makes Shocking Admission About His Role in 1989 Sequel

Ghostbusters star Bill Murray has made a shocking admission about his role in the 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II, and fans may be surprised to hear about it. Collider reports that Murray recently spoke during a Santa Barbara International Film Festival panel and revealed he was essentially tricked into starring in the hit sequel. The actor stated that he was "very, very reluctant" and "in absolutely no hurry" to do a follow-up to Ghostbusters.

"I thought that the only reason anyone would want another one was just to make money," Murray said during the panel. "And I was probably the most reluctant. Someone outfoxed me anyway. I don't know if Ivan [Reitman, the director] set it up, but they got us all back together in a room, and really, we hadn't been together in a room since the movie came out and it was just really, really fun to be together. We were really funny together."

The iconic actor went on to say, "Those are some really wonderful, really funny guys and girls. Sigourney [Weaver] and Annie Potts are some really spectacular women and funny as hell. They got us all together and they pitched a story idea that was really great. I thought, 'Holy cow, we could make that work.'"

However, Murray explained that "it ended up not being the story they wrote." Elaborating, he said, "They got us in the sequel under false pretenses. Harold [Ramis] had this great idea, but by the time we got to shooting it, I showed up on set and went, 'What the hell is this? What is this thing?' But we were already shooting it, so we had to figure out how to make it work."

Murry will next appear in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the franchise's fourth film, and third in the original Ghostbuster cannon. Ghostbusters: Answer the Call from 2016 is said to be a reboot that takes place in an alternate timeline. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is written and directed by Jason Reitman, the son of Ivan, who directed the first two films.

Speaking about the new film, Murray said that the younger Reitman's script "really brings [the franchise] back to life," but added, candidly, that he did not necessarily enjoy the process of filming it. "We were just in it for a little while, but it was physically painful," he 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."

Murray added, 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." Ghostbusters: Afterlife is scheduled to premiere in theaters on Nov. 11.