The release of the first official trailer for the upcoming female-fronted Ghostbusters reboot on March 3 was met with both excitement and controversy, the latter over the fact that SNL's Leslie Jones, the only person of color in the main cast, would be playing the role of MTA worker Patty - ultimately the only nonscientist in the crew. In addition to Jones' rebuttal regarding accusations of stereotyping on behalf of the production team ("why can't a regular person be a Ghostbuster?"), it looks like director Paul Feig has also responded to the critics, revealing that the role of Patty was originally written for fellow ghostbuster Melissa McCarthy.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, director Feig discussed the choice to switch Jones and McCarthy's roles:
"We had written the role with Melissa in mind, but then I thought I've seen Melissa play a brash, larger than life character. She's done it in my movies before!. [Leslie's] one of my favorite people on the planet. I don't normally like comedy that's big and loud, but she is able to pull that off in a way that feels real and it's her.
I want to find the funniest people I know and once I know what's the funniest thing about them I want that to be the thing that I put on screen and let shine. This is the role that Leslie can shine comedically in. If you've ever seen her do stand-up, it's just who she is. I wanted to unleash Leslie on the public in the same way we unleashed Melissa on the public in Bridesmaids, with a very showy role."
There's a possibility that Feig's commentary was made in reaction to the backlash surrounding the first trailer, in which it was revealed that Jones' character was the only nonscientist out of the bunch - a decision some publications considered an act of stereotyping made possible by old school attitudes concerning race and Hollywood.
As The Mary Sue pointed out, something similar happened to actor Ernie Hudson, who played Winston in the original movie: originally, his character had been written as "an Air Force major" or a "demolitions guy" who appeared at the very beginning of the film, but was subsequently changed to an unemployed black man who first appeared on page 68 of the script. Hudson called the experience "devastating."
In another article at The Mary Sue, Teresa Jusino reflected on Jones' recast:
"Looking at what we know about the role from what little we've seen, you can see how Patty would indeed have been a quintessential Melissa McCarthy role. It's not like she's never played loud, brash civil servants before! It's interesting then that so many of us collectively looked at that part being played by Jones and assumed that it was clearly written for a black character. It says a lot about the preconceived notions we all have when it comes to race."
While the entire affair might be disappointing, we're just thankful that a strong, talented, and brilliant comic like Jones is in the Ghostbusters reboot - from what we can tell from the trailer, she steals each and every scene.
And speaking of the trailer - check it out in the video clip below.
Source: Empire
