Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire star Mckenna Grace is well aware of the weight of starring in one of the most iconic and adored film franchises of all time.
But the 17-year-old actress has no reason to fear being part of something so culturally important, not least because she already has sizeable experience having starred in huge global hits I, Tonya, Gifted and The Handmaid’s Tale, to name a few.
The rising Texan star is a rare example of Hollywood using a youngster of the correct age to play a now-15-year-old Phoebe Spengler, the granddaughter of original character Egon Spengler, portrayed by the late Harold Ramis.
Spengler Senior joined forces with Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz, Bill Murray as Peter Venkman and Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore in the original 1984 film – now 40 years old – to hunt ghosts. This mantel later fell to a new generation led by Phoebe, brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), mum Callie (Carrie Coon) and her seismologist boyfriend Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd).
At the end of the long-gestating sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021, both teams joined forces to defeat the usual supernatural threat to a large chunk of humanity and returned to New York and the gang’s iconic firehouse headquarters.
On her second Ghostbusters film already, and it’s easy to forget how young Grace is given her poise and professionalism when we sit down for a chat in the swanky surroundings of Claridge’s Hotel in Mayfair, were it not for a little hint of nerves (she later decides to change her outfit).
She’s also without the usual entourage of representatives and publicists, travelling with just her mum, to whom she occasionally throws glances during our interview.
She’s at the end of a lengthy press tour for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, but with youth on her side she is more than ready to get stuck into our chat, even if she briefly forgets where we are in the moment.
‘Oh my God, I don’t know where I am,’ she says. ‘I was in Paris yesterday, and before I was in Madrid, so I have no idea where I am right now!’
She is a self-professed lifelong ‘massive’ fan of Ghostbusters, and she says movies were ‘such an integral part of my childhood and teen years’ (which she’s still in) that she can’t remember when she first became aware of them.
And, while Grace didn’t undergo any special initiation ceremony when she became a Ghostbuster on her first day on the film set, she does, however, still remember how it felt to first wear a proton pack, the famous device worn on the Ghostbusters’ backs to help capture and control ghosts.
‘I got to wear a proton pack in my chemistry read and I cried,’ she tells me. ‘I was like, “Alright, I don’t think I’m gonna get this role but I’m just honoured to have even read for Jason and Ivan Reitman. And then I ended up getting it!”’
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a fun, family-friendly film that aims to strike a balance between attracting new fans to the franchise and serving long-standing ones (there are plenty of welcome returns including an army of ‘Mini-Pufts’ Marshmellow Men and even incensed New York bureaucrat and original antagonist, Walter Peck (William Atherton), who now has Phoebe firmly in his sights).
However, it’s debuted to a decidedly mixed reception from critics so far, sitting at 46%, the lowest of all Ghostbusters films, and officially ‘rotten’ on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes – but Grace has a relaxed reaction to negativity aimed at the franchise. And she does read – at least some of – the reviews.
‘Everybody can say whatever they want about a film. Everybody’s gonna watch a film and have a different takeaway,’ she says.
‘Whenever I read a review – I love Letterboxd (a social and cataloguing site for film fans) and so I’m always reading Letterboxd reviews – but I think whenever there’s a review, and it’s like, “Stop making Ghostbusters movies!” or “stop, just let the franchise die!”, because people say that, I’m not just like – I’m gonna be honest, people say that.
‘But if you’re going into the movie with that attitude, then you were never gonna give it a chance in the first place. If you want to go to the theatre, and have a fun time and enjoy a fun action Ghostbusters movie, then go to the theatre and watch Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire! If you think that you don’t like the franchise and you don’t want to watch the movie, then don’t watch the movie. It’s not for you!’
The young actress follows up this straightforward view by pointing out that it’s ‘really for the fans’, anyway.
‘And even if you’re not a fan, you can still enjoy it, it’s such a fun, exciting film. I think that it’s just – don’t take it too seriously. Don’t take yourself too seriously. It’s Ghostbusters. I mean, it’s the most crazy concept in the world – it’s exterminators for ghosts – like, it’s so outlandish, it’s so fun. So it’s not like any of us are taking ourselves that seriously!’
She also stands proudly by her work and that of her castmates, director and co-writer Gil Kenan and additional scribe and producer Jason Reitman.
‘I think that it’s fantastic, by the way, it’s a great movie. I’m really proud of it and, not being a part of it – if I wasn’t – I really enjoy the film just for what it is. It’s really fun.’
She reiterates: ‘Everybody has a different takeaway and if it’s not for you, then it’s not for you – but it’s definitely for me, and I think the fans will really enjoy it. I think that it definitely pays [tribute] to the fans and it also makes sense for a larger audience as well.’
She also promises ‘so many things’ for the diehards to enjoy.
‘There’s always going to be like tonnes of nostalgia and callbacks – the entire movie is a sequel so the entire movie is a callback – but it’s gonna be super-fun to be able to point things out and find things, for OG fans.’
Grace sounds comfortable with her distinguished co-stars, on what appears to have been a pretty low-key and relaxed set.
‘I’ve learned a lot just from watching them act and watching the ways they interact with people. They’re really lovely people,’ she says, revealing: ‘I learned a lot about ghosts from Dan.’
According to her, Aykroyd is ‘just like Ray, his character, in real life’.
‘He has so many ghost stories and alien stories and Saturday Night Live stories. So literally, I will just sit around for hours and listen to him talk. Tell me everything! Tell me anything, Dan,’ she laughs.
They also shrugged off the pressure of the franchise while shooting by just being ‘kind of stupid with our humour’.
‘Everybody on set is just having a great time because I think that you can’t take yourself – like of course, we’re taking the legacy and this film and this franchise so seriously – but you can’t take yourself too seriously, especially on a set like this. It’s such a fun film, you have to have so much fun while shooting it.’
‘It’s a big responsibility,’ she muses, ‘But we’re just happy and honoured to be there. So it’s a really fun set to be a part of. And we’re all just keeping it light with each other.’
One darker spot on the horizon for them was making the first Ghostbusters film without Ivan Reitman, the franchise’s long-term director and producer who died in 2022, after the release of Afterlife.
He has a posthumous producing credit on Frozen Empire though, and the film is dedicated to him.
Grace certainly noticed a difference on set with his absence.
‘Ivan was there most of the time on Afterlife – it was like having really nice grandpa on set who had very lovely sweaters and advice and notes. There was definitely something missing without him there, but I think that we all felt his presence over this film because, you know, it is his baby. It’s his creation.
‘It was definitely different without him there, but we definitely felt him throughout this film. We made it with a lot of love and a lot of love for Ivan.’
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is out in cinemas on Friday, March 22.
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