Face-to-face with a lady Ghostbuster

SINGAPORE — I never knew how funny Melissa McCarthy was until I met her during the recent Sony Summit in this city where three possible blockbusters were featured — Inferno, the third of Dan Brown’s controversial trilogy (after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) in which Tom Hanks reprises his role as symbologist Robert Langdon; the much-awaited reboot of Magnificent Seven (inspired by the Akiro Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai); and, that’s it, the reboot of the 1984 smash-hit Ghostbusters which McCarthy represented at the Summit with director Paul Feig (who directed her in Spy, Bridesmaids, etc.).

After our five-minute TV interview, I asked if we could have a picture with her and Feig, and McCarthy smiled, “Why not? Come over here.” I did as told and stood between them.

Since the movie is about ghosts, I asked McCarthy if she has had an encounter with ghosts.

“Oh yes, I had,” her eyes lit up. “I do believe in ghosts. When I was in college, I stayed in a big house and I took the attic room. There was a definite, definite unseen presence in that room and I knew it was a ghost. I would learn that other occupants felt the same. They told the landlady, ‘We love this house except the attic room,’ and the landlady simply smiled. I think she knew why.”

Unlike in the original which stars male ghostbusters (Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis who also both co-wrote the screenplay), the reboot features an all-female team composed of, aside from McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.

Included in the cast is Chris Hemsworth who sheds his Thor persona for a comedic character, his first attempt (successfully!) in the genre, playing the ghostbusters’ dim-witted office receptionist.

Told that there were all kinds of ghosts in the Philippines, McCarthy said, “Oh, I would like to meet them!” You are welcome anytime, I said. “I will bear that in mind,” she replied.

The previous night, McCarthy (with Feig) regaled fans, 263 of them dressed as ghosts, at the Events Plaza of Marina Bay Sands where the Summit was held. Hardly dampened by an earlier drizzle, McCarthy gamely walked off the red carpet to do ambush interviews with TV reporters and shook as many hands as she could reach, blowing kisses as she proceeded to the stage to acknowledge the honor of landing the event in Guinness World Records for having the most number of ghost-clad audience.

We saw clips of the movie at the preview and you obviously enjoyed playing your character Abby, the paranormal expert.

“I love that Abby is, like me, a believer in ghosts. It doesn’t matter if people are making fun of her, which they always have. It doesn’t matter if nobody else believes. It doesn’t matter that people think she’s crazy. She’s just always believed in the paranormal. I just love that she’s stayed the course, no matter what.”

Did you undergo training or did you just take it on?

“Oh no, you just can’t take it on because shooting some of the scenes were dangerous. As fun as the movie is, you have to train for it. There are certain scenes where 30 or 35 people are all flying and moving and running at you. There’s choreography to it but you really have to pay attention because something can go off and people can really get hurt. But when you pull it off and then you watch it afterwards, you look forward to the next scene and you go, ‘Yeah, I should do that.’ By the way, I’m warning children not to try any of the stunts at home.”

Is it true that you volunteered to do many of your own stunts?

“Yes, I really love all that stunt stuff. I asked to be thrown into things; I tried to do everything that they let me do. Paul would warn me, ‘No, you’re not going to do that; you’re not going to drop onto a car from 25 feet up.’ When he said that, I would think, ‘That makes sense,’ and just the same I would hear myself saying, ‘Why not?’ Paul couldn’t do anything. He would say, ‘You’re insane,’ and walk away.”

The actors playing ghosts were in full make-up and prosthetics. Did you recognize who they were while fighting with them?

“Only after the shoot. Like the ghosts in the subway. They went through six, seven, eight hours of prosthetics. I’ve known one of them for years but I had no idea who it was, not until he spoke and I said, ‘Oh, my God, I know who you are.’ When we were acting, Paul was so great that he really put people in there who were fully dressed, fully made-up and unrecognizable with prosthetics on. It was a little creepy.”

Chris Hemsworth, a drop-dead gorgeous guy, is famous as an action star. How was it working with him in a comedy?

“You know, you do some talking before he comes in. You get yourself centered and you’re like, ‘Let’s be respectful.’ And then he walks in and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’ You’re right. He’s gorgeous and pretty to look at. But that strangely goes away very quickly because he knew he was going to be nice. Everybody said, ‘Oh, he’s such a great guy. He’s so nice. You’re going to love him. You’re going to love him.’

“No one mentioned that he was bizarrely funny, he was so funny and he was one of the best improvisers I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with a lot of really funny guys. Chris just kind of blew us all away. And we had such a fun time with him that he eventually just became Chris and we stopped being creepy.”

Any memorable experience with him off camera, on the set?

“Well, without you knowing it, he would start singing. We were talking about music and Chris would be acting like he was trying to look up somebody. One of us would ask what the title of a song was and suddenly, Chris would start singing it. I would go, ‘Shut up. For God’s sake, you can sing?’ And he would go, ‘Well, I can carry a tune.’ I was like, ‘Just don’t, ‘cause I’m going to pretend that you’re terrible at something or I’ll hate you. So just shut it and don’t sing, ever.’ He was fun on the set.”

Did you also have fun with the slime?

“Oh yes, we were super excited to get slimed. But what you probably didn’t know was that the slime was hard to wash off. When you do it with water, it reactivates and doubles. And you start to feel crazy ‘cause you’re like, ‘I’m washing and yet there’s more.’ And, uh, you have to like take it off with dry towels and then when you hit it with water it kind of doubles again. So it takes a couple of days to get that off.”

What about the proton pack?

“There was no magic there. I really wore the proton pack. The prop is just as heavy as it looks, especially when we were diving, running and fighting wearing it. Every time we got blown back by something and landed on our backs, I would felt the sharp, heavy-jagged metal.”

By the way, if you ever saw a real ghost, would you bust it?

“No. I would shake his hand and give him a warm hug.”

(Presented by Columbia Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, Ghostbusters is an Ivan Reitman Production opening nationwide on Friday, July 15.)

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