Bill Murray says it was 'physically painful' to shoot the new 'Ghostbusters' movie

Bill Murray is coming back to play Dr. Peter Venkman in the latest movie in the "Ghostbusters" franchise, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" — and the 70-year-old admits putting the proton pack on again to play the silly ghost-chaser took a toll on his body this time around.

"It was physically painful," Murray revealed while doing a virtual talk recently at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, according to Collider. "Wearing those packs is extremely uncomfortable."

Murray has appeared in all the sequels following the hit 1984 original, but he said filming for the new movie was particularly challenging because a lot of "wind and dirt" was in his face due to the special effects. Plus, there was a lot of falling down and getting back up.

"I was like, 'What is this? What am I doing? These are like Bulgarian deadlifts, or a Russian kettlebell, getting up and down with this thing on my back,'" he said. "It was very uncomfortable."

But the actor believes with pain comes glory.

"Usually, when something has a very high misery quotient, something comes of that and some quality is produced that, if you can capture it and project it, comes on the screen and affects you," Murray said, according to Collider.

Sony, which releases the "Ghostbuster" movies, hopes "Afterlife" will be a success.

While the original "Ghostbusters" was an instant comedy classic thanks to the antics by Murray and costars Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, and the late Harold Ramis, the 1989 sequel was a bust as was the all-female reboot in 2016.

But Murray is optimistic. Not just due to the pain factor he went through this time around, but also because director Jason Reitman, the son of the director of the original movie, Ivan Reitman, is at the helm of "Afterlife."

"I remember him calling me and saying, 'I've got an idea for another 'Ghostbusters.' I've had this idea for years.' I thought, 'What the heck could that possibly be?'" Murray said. "I remember him when he was a kid. I remember his Bar Mitzvah. I was like, 'What the heck? What does this kid know?' But he had a really, really wonderful idea."

"Ghostbusters: Afterlife" is a direct sequel to the first two movies. Along with Murray, it also stars Aykroyd, Hudson, and Weaver all reprising their original roles. The movie also stars Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, and "Stranger Things" star Finn Wolfhard.

The movie is set for release in November 2021.

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