Bill Murray Explains Change Of Heart Behind His Decision To Cameo In Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters

After much back and forth on the matter, Bill Murray finally put the rumors and speculation to bed a few weeks back when he confirmed that he would make a cameo appearance in Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot after all. But why the sudden change of heart?

Production on a potential threequel to the supernatural series has long been held up due to Murray’s hesitance to return, and though fellow buster Dan Aykroyd and director Ivan Reitman tried to engineer a reboot that would have the original team adopt a mentor capacity, the former parapsychologist (aka Peter Venkman) claimed he would only reprise his role if he was appearing as a ghost. Low and behold, Murray, who has championed Paul Feig’s new take for some time, will now cameo in the feature, and Vulture has the skinny on his switcheroo.

Donning the proton pack is clearly something Murray doesn’t take lightly and here, the beloved actor explains the relatively straightforward reason behind his decision to jump on board for Feig’s creative overhaul.

But hadn’t Murray maintained for a long time that he wasn’t interested in donning that proton pack again? “That’s true, I wasn’t,” Murray admitted, though the addition of actresses like Wiig and McCarthy — who he called “a great hope” — changed his mind. “I like those girls a lot,” he said. “I mean, I really do. They are tough to say no to. And Paul is a real nice fellow.”

Further in the interview, Murray admitted that he had been contemplating his involvement – or lack thereof – for a long time. Ultimately, the actor decided to kick old habits to the curb and commit to the project, lest his decision to pass up on Ghostbusters come around to haunt Feig’s female-centric reboot.

“I thought about it for a very long time. Like, many, many months. No, that’s not right. I was seriously thinking about this for years, really … It kept eating at me, and I really respect those girls. And then I started to feel like if I didn’t do this movie, maybe somebody would write a bad review or something, thinking there was some sort of disapproval [on my part].”

Paul Feig will assemble the new-look Ghostbusters – toplined by Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon – when Sony’s reboot slinks into theaters on July 15, 2016.