Ghostbusters Stay Puft: An Interview with the Man in the Suit

Within the Ghostbusters franchise, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is likely one of the most recognizable characters. Most hardcore fans recall vividly the image of the giant, marshmallow man lumbering through the streets of New York. In the original Ghostbusters movie, released in 1984, the Stay Puft Man is the physical incarnation of the evil deity Gozer. In the movie, the voice of Gozer announces to the Ghostbusters that she will embody the next thing they think of and destroy the city in that form. Ray Stantz (brilliantly played by Dan Aykroyd), attempts to lessen the damage to the city by thinking of the most harmless creature he can think of: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Stantz is dismayed when the “harmless” creature he thought of turns out to be a 100 ft terror who stomps through the packed streets causing the inhabitants to flee. The Ghostbusters attempt to stop him with their proton packs, which sets the Stay Puft Man on fire, but he continues his reign of terror with no avail. The burning Marshmallow Man advance on them in a frightening vision. Luckily, the Ghostbusters figure out how to destroy a portal using all their proton packs simultaneously, which reduces the Marshmallow Man to a molten pile of white goo.

Recently, I had the good fortune to interview Bill Bryan, the head fabricator and performer of the iconic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. While it was Aykroyd who came up with the idea to use the character of the Marshmallow Man in the script, the execution of the creature was the brainchild of Bryan. For 6 months on the set of Ghostbusters, Bryan created and destroyed 17 different Stay Puft Marshmallow Man suits. Below is my exclusive interview with Bryan.

Q: What year was the original Ghostbusters made?

A: 1984

Q: What was it like being in the suit?

A: Well it was warm, it was all made of insulating foam, but I made the suit so it was comfortable.

Q: Did u actually make the suit? How long did it take to make it?

A: Each [of the 18] suits took about a week.

Q: You made 18 suits!?

A: Yes, and we burnt 17 of them

Q: How long did it take to shoot each segment?

A: I was on that job for six months

Q: That’s amazing!

A: You see, each of the suits had a zipper on it [ in different locations] The zipper was on the side away from the camera, so if it was a front view suit, the zipper was on the back, if it was a side view suit the zipper was on the opposite side, and if it was a back view suit the zipper was on the front. Each time we burnt a suit, we had to be sure it was a good shot, that it worked. And so we wouldn’t choose which side to put the zipper on until we knew the shot. Each [suit] only lasted for a short time while it was burning, and sometimes it was side view shot or it was a front view shot or back view. Each [suit] had the fire for just a few seconds and then it’s all burnt up. And so it took a bunch [of suits] to make it happen. For each [suit], we would dress up the stunt guy if he was burning.  We would get everything set: we would make sure the lights were right, that the background was set up with the model buildings. We would [use] one or two suits per night.

Q: Was it shot in front of a green screen?

A: Sometimes there was a blue screen. We shot some of it in front of a blue screen and some in front of a black screen and some of it was shot on a giant model, so there was no green screen involved, depending on the shot.

Q: What is the difference between a blue screen and a black screen?

A: Obviously it’s the color of the screen, but Stay Puft is so bright white, [they shot him in front of a black screen]. Remember when you see Stay Puft step into traffic on Columbus Circle in New York City? He comes around the corner, the first time you see the whole body of Stay Puft? They shot that in New York City.  They got the background, [then] they also set up a black screen and they shot some people running in front of it. They shot me in front of a black screen and they sandwiched the three [shots] together, you know you take three pieces of film. It’s kinda like doing it on the computer, but they didn’t have the computer facilities to do it back then. Instead they had to do it physically with actual strips of film: one that’s got the people in front, one that’s got me [dressed as Stay Puft] in the middle, and one that’s got the buildings in the background. [They would] put them together and put them through a composite camera which would shoot them all at once.