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Dan Aykroyd was baffled by beer ad backlash: ‘What, trans people can’t have a cold beer?’-Simon Gage-Entertainment – Metro
Of course they can!
Dan Aykroyd talks old friends, LGBT rights, Ghostbusters and vodka (Picture: Metro / Getty)
Is there anything 70-year-old Dan Aykroyd can’t turn his hand to? From writing, producing and starring in Ghostbusters through Saturday Night Live and Blues Brothers to opening the House of Blues venues and launching the sexiest vodka on the market, Crystal Head, he’s done it all.
He talks about the new Ghostbusters movie, working with the LGBTQ+ community and how he still misses his Blues Brother John Belushi.
Was it over some drinks that you came up with the idea for Crystal Head Vodka?
The business grew out of me wanting a better margarita at my dock in the summer. In Canada, you could only get two brands of tequila so I went to my friend John Paul DeJoria, the great entrepreneur who founded Patrón tequila, and we partnered, he made me importing agent. Then I started to look at vodka…
You were already a businessman anyway, weren’t you, with the House of Blues?
I started it but it’s now owned by Live Nation. I’ve been in show business for a long time and they don’t call it show business for nothing. It taught me about basic economics.
How far along are we with the new Ghostbusters film?
Pride Month 2023
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Dan is pleased to hand the torch to a new generation of actors (Picture: Craig Barritt/Getty Images)
Dan reckons John Belushi would have loved the House of Blues (Picture: Getty)
We’re three quarters through filming, which means it’s got to be edited and mixed and the CGI has to be put into it. I’m excited about this one. It’s got a beautiful, heartfelt story, a great threat, some scary moments, some funny moments and it brings back Annie Potts and Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray and myself and we’ve handed the torch to the new people, Finn Wolfhard and Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon.
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Dan and Bill love each other (Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Sony Pictures)
You and Bill Murray are such good friends anyway…
We are. We love each other and it was wonderful to have him back. I was working with him this week and he brings such incredible energy and wit and style and charisma to the set.
As a spiritualist, you believe in ghosts, don’t you?
I do. My family is a spiritualist family going back to my great-grandfather Sam. We’re a very tolerant religion, one of the first to embrace same-gendered couples. I’ve had some vivid, beautiful medium experiences – we had a family medium. My dad’s book, History Of Ghosts, talks about some of the entities and personalities that were channelled.
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You must still miss your old Blues Brother John Belushi…
We had eight wonderful years together and I do regret that he wasn’t around for the construction of House of Blues because he would have just loved it and been totally in his element. I’m not sure how John would have handled the natural decline of employment that comes with a long career, as I’m experiencing now…
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi starred in Blues Brothers (Picture: Moviestore Collection/REX)
Dan has decided to back off from acting if it isn’t Ghostbusters (Picture: Shutterstock/REX)
But older actors get quite a lot of good work, don’t they?
I’ve decided to kind of back off the acting a bit and only do the Ghostbusters movies. I still do concerts with John’s brother, Jimmy: we played at Joliet Prison last fall, a real prison where we shot [The Blues Brothers] and 8,000 people showed up all in the hats and glasses in Oldsmobiles.
You were great in Behind The Candelabra.
That was [director] Steve Soderbergh. The true-life story of [gay pianist] Liberace. Weren’t Michael Douglas and Matt Damon perfect? If I were offered the part of a gay man, I would want to take it but what’s the view in the gay community?
Divided. But if you’re a gay actor, you want to play straight roles…
Oh, absolutely! Neither Matt or Michael are gay but they did a wonderful job. I think [only gay actors playing gay roles] is an invalid argument.
Dan isn’t sure he would play a gay role as a straight man but admired Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in Behind The Candelabra (Picture: Moviestore/REX)
The bottle for Crystal Head Vodka was designed by Dan’s business partner John Alexander (Picture: by Foc Kan/WireImage)
Crystal Head’s special Pride edition supports LGBTQ+ human rights worldwide (Picture: Crystal Head Vodka)
Transwoman Dylan Mulvaney was hit with backlash when she starred in a Budweiser commercial (Picture: dylanmulvaney/Instagram)
Crystal Head’s glass skull bottle was designed by your artist business partner, right?
Yeah. John Alexander drew up the bottle and I thought to myself how can I put a polluted vodka in this beautiful bottle?
You’ve had two special Pride bottles for Crystal Head, haven’t you?
We are so happy with our work in the community. We support Kaleidoscope [a charity supporting LGBTQ+ human rights worldwide] and we give 20 per cent of our profits on all the Pride bottles to that cause, which produces tolerance, produces an acceptance of diversity… you know the homophobia that’s going on in Uganda right now and Russia and Chechnya.
Is the trans question as contentious in the US as it is here?
They just had this Budweiser beer line advertised by a trans person and there was a tremendous terrible backlash. What, trans people can’t have a cold beer?
Crystal Head Vodka limited edition ‘Paint Your Pride’ bottle is available online and in-store for £60 at Harvey Nichols and all good UK retailers.
Crystal Head Vodka Original is available from amazon.co.uk
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