Harold Ramis’ Daughter On Why She Supports The Female Ghostbusters

Ever since the new female-led Ghostbusters movie was announced, people have been complaining that it would tarnish the memory of the movie they grew up with. But Violet Ramis Stiel, the daughter of original Ghostbusters star and co-writer Harold Ramis, doesn't feel that way at all. In an essay for Splitsider, Stiel wrote about having "the coolest dad" in school when the movie came out. After her father died, producer Ivan Reitman decided not to make any more Ghostbusters movies. "Damn right! There can be no Ghostbusters without my dad!" she recalls thinking. When the latest version came along, she stood by her conviction...at first. But then, she read comments on articles about the film. "As much as I wanted to stomp my foot and align myself with the opposition, there was no way I could stand behind the viciousness and ugliness that seemed to fuel these fundamentalists," she wrote. "From flat-out rejection of women as funny, to remarks about the actor’s looks, to the invocation of GB84 as ‘untouchable’ and disgust with ‘reboot culture’ generally, I was shocked by the anger and outrage." Stiel reassured everyone that her father is not "rolling in his grave." Plus, she said, we need movies that can give her 9-year-old daughter and other girls "a chance to put on a proton pack and feel like a badass." Thinking about the next generation, after all, doesn't have to mean dishonoring the last one.