Ernie Hudson Didn’t Get To Play Winston On The Real Ghostbusters
Poor Ernie Hudson. He was a member of the original Ghostbusters in 1984, but he never seemed to get as much attention as his fellow ‘busters, in spite of delivering immortal lines such as, “Tell him about the Twinkie” and “If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.”
To add insult to injury, Hudson apparently wasn’t considered “good enough” to voice Winston Zeddemore — the role he played in the movie, for crying out loud — in the Real Ghostbusters animated TV series.
That’s right, they told the guy who played Winston Zeddemore that he wasn’t convincing enough as Winston Zeddemore. Let that sink in.
In an interview with the AV Club, Ernie Hudson opened up about getting turned down to voice his own Ghostbusters character in the cartoon spinoff. According to the animated series’ director, Hudson read for the part but wasn’t enough like Winston to land the role. Instead, the part went to his old friend, Arsenio Hall.
Ernie Hudson explained, in part, “…they said, ‘You don’t have to audition for the part, but the director wants to hear you read the material. So I went in to read the material, and the guy said, ‘No, no, no, that’s all wrong! When Ernie Hudson did it in the movie…’ And I’m like, ‘Well, wait a minute: I am Ernie Hudson!”
The bad news didn’t stop there. What happened next was even more unprofessional. Ernie Hudson said, “…and then I never heard anything from them. Then I found out that Arsenio [Hall] was doing it. I was very busy doing other stuff, but I was really disappointed because the thought of someone else doing Winston was not something I felt great about. Arsenio’s a friend, so there’s no disrespect to him.”
Arsenio Hall voiced the role of Winston Zeddemore on The Real Ghostbusters for two seasons and was then replaced by voice actor Bernie Jones for the last three seasons of the animated series.
Despite not being in the limelight quite as much as his Ghostbusters counterparts, Ernie Hudson still had an extensive career on TV and in movies, including parts in The Crow, Full House, and Congo (fans of HBO’s Oz will also remember him as the stern warden of Emerald City). Ernie Hudson eventually reprised his role as Winston in Ghostbusters 2 and the Ghostbusters video game in 2009.
And as far as the live-action Ghostbusters was concerned. He had a brief cameo appearance as Winston in the 2021 film Ghostbusters: Afterlife and a bigger part in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. So, the issue was somewhat corrected after the fact. But this was still an insane omission.
