“Ghostbusters” is one of the most talked-about movies of the summer, though much of the chatter has been negative. Controversy has surrounded Paul Feig’s reboot of the beloved franchise since its inception, with many objecting to the very notion of the female-led take of the 1984 original. Melissa McCarthy has spoken out about the backlash to Entertainment Weekly, saying that the original characters “weren’t real either. It’s a movie. I can’t make heads or tails of it, and then I never gave it another thought. You just have to go, ‘Well, I hope you get out a little more. The world is fun.’ I really think it’s the minority.”
Co-star Leslie Jones says she “got a picture of a guy shooting a black woman in the head” in response to the upcoming film, though she appears unfazed. “I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to take a break from going on there. These are crazy people.’ It was time to start using silence as a weapon. I’m starting to learn that it’s more deadly than saying anything. When people started asking me about the gender stuff, I would say, ‘It’s not a man thing, it’s not a woman thing. It’s a Ghostbuster thing.’ That’s all I’ve got to say.”
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Jones also remarked that none of the people who make such comments online would do so in real life. “When the movie comes out,” she adds, “it’s going to shut everybody up.” That fateful day is July 15.
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