Leslie Jones ain’t afraid of no ghost — or playing a transit worker.
The co-star of the upcoming all-female version of Ghostbusters took to Twitter to defend her role as a member of the paranormal-fighting group who appears in footage released Thursday to be an employee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The portrayal of the team’s only non-white member as a transit worker in filmmaker Paul Feig’s new Ghostbusters came under fire on social media after the trailer debuted.
“Why can’t a regular person be a ghostbuster. Im confused. And why can’t I be the one who plays them I am a performer. Just go see the movie!,” she tweeted. “Regular people save the world every day so if I’m the stereotype, then so be it! We walk among Heroes and take them for granted.”
Jones’ character Patty teams up to fight ghosts in the film with Melissa McCarthy’s paranormal researcher, Abby, Kristen Wiig’s particle physicist, Erin, and Kate McKinnon’s nuclear engineer, Jillian.
In the original Ghostbusters movies, Ernie Hudson portrayed the team’s only non-white member, Winston.
Ghostbusters is scheduled for release July 15 in the US.
