‘Ghostbusters’ Director Blames Studio for Keeping Kate McKinnon’s Character in the Closet

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‘Ghostbusters’ Director Blames Studio for Keeping Kate McKinnon’s Character in the Closet

Ghostbusters director Paul Feig won’t say whether Kate McKinnon’s breakout character Holtzmann is gay. Because…you know….Hollywood.

The Daily Beast:

But while McKinnon is SNL’s first openly lesbian cast member, Ghostbusters offers only hints on Holtzmann, who spends her free time shamelessly flirting with Erin. I ask Feig: Is Holtzmann gay?

He pauses, smiling. “What do you think?”

I’d like to think yes, I say. He offers a grinning, silent nod. “I hate to be coy about it,” he offers. “But when you’re dealing with the studios and that kind of thing…” He shrugs apologetically.

“You know, Kate is who she is and I love the relationship between Kate and Melissa’s characters,” he says. “I think it’s a very interesting, close relationship. If you know Kate at all she’s this kind of pansexual beast where it’s just like everybody who’s around her falls in love with her and she’s so loving to everybody she’s around. I wanted to let that come out in this character.”

Writes Gawker’s Rich Juzwiak:

…ambiguity can enhance fiction, giving the illusion of depth to a two-dimensional character (and if there’s anything blockbusters are short on it’s ambiguity and depth).

But by the same token, if what we’re talking about isn’t a big deal, then why shouldn’t Holtzmann be gay? If she was, in fact, conceived that way, but Feig is trying to obscure that through coy hedging because Columbia Pictures (owned by Sony) is concerned that a gay character will be unmarketable, or offensive to idiots, or maybe reach out from the screen to molest the children sitting in the theater, then that’s fucked up. Ambiguity is fun until it exists to service those who are still uncomfortable with the idea that a good guy can be gay. What this creative decision, alongside Feig’s apparent admission of it perpetuate, is covering, the notion that in order to be socially acceptable, a queer person must tone down her sexuality.

And that’s a Hollywood story that seems to always have a sequel.

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