Bless Rick Moranis. The prolific comedian-actor had an incredible run in the 80’s, moving from SCTV to Ghostbusters, moving on to Walter Hill’s Streets Of Fire, Little Shop Of Horrors, Spaceballs, Parenthood and even his own franchise, Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Ultimately, the roles dried up and Moranis was demeaning himself in a series of sidekick and wimp roles. And ultimately, six years after his wife’s passing, Rick Moranis fled filmmaking entirely, leaving behind an unimpeachable legacy.
While Rick Moranis has popped up sporadically in film and television, he’s mostly stayed home with his kids, enjoying life as a single father. He recently stopped by the podcast Bullseye with Jessie Thorn, and Uproxx collected the most notable portions. And his reasons from avoiding the limelight seem modest, respectable, believable.
"Stuff happens to people everyday, and they make adjustments to their lives for all kinds of reasons. There was nothing unusual about what happened or what I did, I think the reason that people were intrigued by the decisions I was making and sometimes seem to have almost admiration for it had less to do with the fact that I was doing what I was doing and more to do with what they thought I was walking away from, as if what I was walking away from had far greater value than anything else that one might have. The decision in my case to become a stay-at-home-Dad, which people do all the time, I guess wouldn’t have meant as much to people if I had had a very simple kind of make-a-living existence and decided I needed to spend more time at home. Nobody would pay attention to it, but because I came from celebrity and fame and what was the peak of a career, that was intriguing to people. To me, it wasn’t that. I didn’t have anything to do with that. It was work, and it was just time to make an adjustment."
The actor also doesn’t seem all that enthused about a third Ghostbusters, though he hasn’t been onscreen since 1996’s Big Bully, an unfortunate Tom Arnold vehicle. An approach to get him to act again would have to be very gracious and cater to his kids: he did offer a voice on the Ghostbusters video game, a break from his usual aversion to the spotlight. Otherwise, he seems happily retired.
"I’m comfortable with where I live. There’s certain places I’m not interested in being. I’m not interested in doing anything I’ve done in the past … I have no idea. It’s not something I’ve given any thought to at all."
Whatever the case, we’re not going to see him in any Ghostbusters or Spaceballs follow-ups any time soon (never mind a Honey I Shrunk The Kids relaunch), though it’s not like he hasn’t kept busy. Along with the endeavors mentioned in the podcast, he’s been a Grammy-nominated musician, with two albums to his name. Listen to Rick Moranis riff on his own homebody lifestyle and Willie Nelson below.
