Bill Murray Says He Was "Reluctant" To Make Ghostbusters II

In a rare interview, comic actor Bill Murray says he was "outfoxed" and kinda-sorta tricked into making Ghostbusters 2. Speaking with Collider, Murray said he was "very, very reluctant" and "absolutely in no hurry" to follow up the smash hit 1984 supernatural comedy--but in the long run, has no regrets about going along with the 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II.

"They got us all back together in a room, and really, we hadn't been together in a room since the [first] movie came out," said Murray. "It was just really, really fun to be together. We were really funny together… they got us all together and they pitched a story idea that was really great."

Except, says Murray, what was previously pitched by director Ivan Reitman (Space Jam, Stripes) and Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, SCTV) "ended up not being the story they wrote… they got us in the sequel under false pretenses." Bill Murray being Bill Murray, he says he and the rest of the cast "had to figure out how to make it work." Like critics, Murray says he ultimately liked the first Ghostbusters better than the second--"just because the first cut is the deepest."

Elsewhere in the interview, Murray discusses how he wound up in Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola's respective orbits, why he himself hasn't directed more, and why it's remained so important to him to have a presence in every Ghostbusters movie--including the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife, due out on November 11, which he thinks is going to be "really, really wonderful." If you don't want to wait that long, this highly-detailed collectible of the ECTO-1 currently available can help tide you over.