The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub interviews co-stars Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace for their sequel
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire features an ensemble cast, including old and new Ghostbusters, to take on an icy enemy to save the world.
Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace discuss their time on set, their Ghostbusters costumes, practical effects, and the final seasons of
Stranger Things
and
The Handmaid’s Tale
.

An ancient evil is awakened in Gil Kenan’s (Monster House) sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. The Spengler family and Gary Grooberson, played by Paul Rudd, have relocated to the firehouse in New York City where they’ve taken on the responsibilities of who you’re gonna call when there’s something strange. But when an ancient artifact stirs an icy enemy, the Ghostbusters, old and new, must join forces to save the world.

In addition to Rudd, Frozen Empire brings back Carrie Coon (The Gilded Age) as Callie Spengler and her kids Trevor and Phoebe, played by Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) and Mckenna Grace (The Handmaid’s Tale) from Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). The movie also features the original Ghostbusters’ Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson, as well as Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals), Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille), Celeste O’Connor (Madame Web), and Emily Alyn Lind (Doctor Sleep).

During an interview, Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with Wolfhard and Grace about their time on set, which practical effects were the coolest, their Ghostbusters costumes, and why Aykroyd took off during production. They also talk about the final seasons of Stranger Things and The Handmaid’s Tale, their careers up to this point, Frozen Empire co-writer Jason Reitman’s (Juno) SNL 1975, and collaborating musically. You can check it all out in the video above or in the transcript below.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second ice age.Release Date March 22, 2024 Director Gil Kenan Runtime 125 Minutes Writers Gil Kenan , Jason Reitman , Ivan Reitman , Dan Aykroyd , Harold Ramis

Finn Wolfhard Says ‘Stranger Things’ Is His Harry Potter Moment
Image via Netflix

COLLIDER: You have both done a ton of cool stuff already in your career. If someone has actually never seen anything you’ve done before, what is the first thing you’d like them watching and why?

FINN WOLFHARD: That’s really interesting. I think probably just to introduce people, maybe Stranger Things, even though I’m like a kid in it. Obviously, you don’t want to be fully defined by a performance that you did when you were young, but I feel like that show is so pivotal in my career and started my career, so that’s probably what I would start people with.

MCKENNA GRACE: Also, you had such a long time on that show to grow and evolve as a person and an actor, so it just kind of has all of your years.

WOLFHARD: Totally. It’s like the Harry Potter thing where it’s such a long thing. Yeah, probably that, I guess.

GRACE: I really don’t know because there’s so much. I would say Ghostbusters, but also, it’s so different from me. It’s very different than what I do a lot of the time in acting. I usually do a lot of very dark or depressing, very sad things. I’m usually married. [Laughs] So, it’s so fun to play Phoebe.

WOLFHARD: Well, you’re in The Handmaid’s Tale.

GRACE: I really do love working on Handmaid’s Tale. I don’t know. It’s like Ghostbusters and Handmaids, I don’t really know what I would pick because it’s so different. Starkly.

WOLFHARD: It’s a toss-up.

You both record music. When are you doing something together?

GRACE: Right now.

WOLFHARD: Right now. Ready?

Wolfhard and Grace harmonize.

WOLFHARD: Did you hear it?

Image via Sony

I did. It’s a four-minute dance track. I could tell.

GRACE: Thank you.

WOLFHARD: It is a four-minute dance track. I’ve listened to Mckenna’s music, and it’s just great pop music.

GRACE: Thanks! I like his music.

WOLFHARD: We’ve talked about, not collab-ing but just mixing or whatever.

GRACE: I’d like to.

WOLFHARD: But she has like a team of people that she works with, and we’re both sort of on our own paths.

GRACE: I’d like to do something together.

WOLFHARD: It’d be fun.

The deal has been struck.

WOLFHARD: The deal has been made.

Dan Aykroyd Raced Off the ‘Frozen Empire’ Set on a Motorcycle
Image via Sony

Jumping into why I get to talk to you, one of the things that’s cool about this movie is that there’s a lot of practical effects. What was the coolest practical effect that you guys saw in person when you were filming that you’re like, “Oh man, that’s really, really cool?”

WOLFHARD: The Slimer puppet was really amazing because they got the original mold from the first movie and remade the puppet from the same exact schematics. That was really cool, and then the slime shooting out of my front and my back. That sounds horrible. The, like, front side of my body — that also sounds horrible.

GRACE: His chest.

WOLFHARD: Yeah, the chest. That was really cool. And there’s a lot of stuff I feel like in this movie that were practical.

GRACE: I had a bit that actually didn’t make it into the film where it’s Paul, Carrie and I in a room and we shoot a proton stream through a window, and they had the window explode and all sorts of stuff. That was very fun. And I know this isn’t special effects but Logan [Kim] and I got to ride on a motorcycle with Dan Aykroyd. They really let him drive it, and then he ran into a pile of dirt. [Laughs] I was in the sidecar, but he made the sidecar hit the pile of dirt, and everybody was like, “Dan, stop the motorcycle,” and it didn’t stop. It launched the sidecar off the pile of dirt and then I hit the ground, and he kept going. We were so far off set.

WOLFHARD: And you were fine?

GRACE: We were in a warehouse, and he drove out of the warehouse doors, onto the street.

WOLFHARD: He just wanted to go for a joyride. He loves cars and speed and trucks. On the first one, he was like, “Are they going to let you go out and take this thing for a spin?” I was like, “No, of course not.” A 16-year-old with a really expensive Ecto-1, I don’t think they’re going to let me go for it.

Finn Wolfhard Might Show Up at Your Starbucks as a Ghostbuster

If I was in this, I don’t think I would be able to resist, when I put on the Ghostbusters costume and I’m wearing the proton pack, saying, “F it,” leaving set, going to the Starbucks or a coffee shop, and just walking in and playing Halloween.

GRACE: I feel like we would get in trouble. Like, I am so down to do that whenever I’m on this, but they’re so secretive with the costumes. It’s like everywhere you go you have to wear a massive jacket, and somebody’s gonna follow you around with an umbrella, no matter how fast you try to outrun them.

WOLFHARD: It’s hard to own it, for sure. I’ll definitely keep the jumpsuit when all is said and done. So maybe I can do it after.

GRACE: On Handmaid’s, sometimes I’ll just go and walk around in my handmaid stuff, like, down the street just because I feel like it.

WOLFHARD: Do you have a bonnet?

GRACE: Yeah, I have a bonnet. I have the red dress.

WOLFHARD: That’s pretty funny.

GRACE: One time I was covered in blood and I just wanted to go and sit out on the sidewalk.

WOLFHARD: That’s funny. People are like, “Oh my god.”

GRACE: It’s fun.

Exactly. That’s exactly what I would do.

Finn Wolfhard Says Jason Reitman’s ‘SNL 1975’ Was a “Really Fun Set”
Image via Sony Pictures

Before I run out of time with both of you, you’re both working on a bunch of other things. What can you tease your fans about what’s coming up in 2024?

WOLFHARD: I’m working on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, which should be really awesome. We just sort of started, and so I’m really excited for that. It’s kind of all-encompassing. I play a small part in Jason Reitman’s SNL 1975 movie, which is really cool.

GRACE: I saw the paparazzi pictures. It looked really cool.

WOLFHARD: Yeah, it was really cool. We shot at 30 Rock and, like, really did it. It’s a really fun set to be a part of.

GRACE: I am working on a lot of music. I have a film that I am executive producing and starring in that I’m really excited about called Straight Lies. Hopefully I’m working on The Handmaid’s Tale final season at some point this year. So much has been happening between the strikes and everything, but there’s lots of very exciting things that are hopefully in the works and coming out soon.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is in theaters now.

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