According to Kate McKinnon, the "best part" of shooting Ghostbusters in Boston last summer was her costume. She got to wear a jumpsuit — duh, it's Ghostbusters — and wear her hair up and out of her face. "Sort of like how I’m dressed now? The opposite of that," she said last night at the Athena Film Festival in New York, wearing a form-fitting black dress and wearing her hair down. McKinnon was there to present her Ghostbusters director Paul Feig with the Athena Film Festival's inaugural Leading Man Award.
She went on to explain why that costume was important in addition to being comfortable.
"It’s sounds like a small thing that I got to wear pants and have my hair up, but it’s actually a really big thing, because we were playing scientists — women playing scientists wearing jumpsuits, kind of ugly jumpsuits — and they made dolls of this," McKinnon said to applause and cheers. "No cleavage," she added.
The Saturday Night Live star described how she could see the impact the film was having on young girls, even during production.
"While we were filming, Paul would sometimes release pictures of how things were going and the costumes we were wearing, and then we’d get a wonderful email from him whenever someone would tweet back a picture of their daughter rocking a Ghostbusters jumpsuit and a proton pack, which happened a lot," she said. "It’s sweet, but it’s also actually quite new and quite huge that something like that would happen."
The morning before her speech, McKinnon did a little research, googling Halloween costumes. "I can tell you with scientific certainty that those Halloween costumes will be the only girls' Halloween costumes available this October that include pants," she said.
Feig is known for making movies that highlight funny, talented women, from Bridesmaids to Spy. The director — who has been called an "honorary woman" — was awarded for his pro-female advocacy in the industry.
"Look, I’m thrilled for the little bit I can do," he told Refinery29 before the event. "I want everyone to be doing this. I can only make so many movies is the problem, and it’s such a bigger problem than that."
Later, while accepting his prize, Feig stated his commitment to helping more women succeed as directors.
"My focus has always been...getting women in front of the camera, but now I want to catch up with women behind the camera and really start to get that going," he said.
Ghostbusters will be released July 15.
Ghostbusters will be released July 15.