Paul Feig partly blames Trump for hatred of female “Ghostbusters.”

Paul Feig, director of the 2016 all-female reboot Ghostbustersblames Donald Trump in part for the racist and sexist criticism the film received from online trolls.

During a recent interview with The Guardianthe filmmaker looked back on all the hate the action comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones received after its debut.

“The political climate of the time was really strange when Hillary Clinton was running for office in 2016,” he recalled. “There were a lot of guys looking for a fight. When I got harassed on Twitter, I went back and looked up who they were. So many were Trump supporters.”

But it didn’t stop there, because Feig said that Trump, the future US president, had only added fuel to the fire with his rhetoric.

“Then Trump spoke out against us,” he said Jackpot! said the director. “He was like, ‘They’re doing a remake.’ Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. You can’t do that. And now they do it Ghostbusters only with women. “What’s going on?” and was completely upset.”

Feig continued: “Everyone became fucking cannibals. This made the film a political statement, as if to say, ‘If you’re pro-women, you’ll watch this.’ If not, then…’ I didn’t think it even mattered that the main characters were women , but people brought a lot of baggage with them.”

The Simple favor The filmmaker also explained why he chose a Ghostbusters more of a reboot than a sequel to the original 1984 and 1989 films starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts.

“Invoice [Murray] had said publicly that he didn’t want to do it again Ghostbusters at that point,” Feig recalled. “Harold Ramis had died. Dan and Ernie were there, but half the team felt weird. It had been 30 years and Bill and the gang were so iconic; I didn’t want to do anything that would detract from the original films.”