Annie Potts was a newlywed 21-year-old theater student when a horrific car crash left her with multiple fractured bones and injuries, almost derailing her promising career. But  her early ordeal only served to make her more determined.

Today, she reflects with Senior Planet on her 50-year career – her roles in Pretty in Pink, Designing Women, voicing Bo Peep in the Toy Story animated franchise, and her current role as Meemaw in the final season of TV’s Young Sheldon.

But her most enduring character is surely Janine Melnitz – the beleaguered receptionist she debuted in the original 1984 film Ghostbusters, now re-uniting with her co-stars Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, for a fifth outing with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

Q: How emotional is it returning to Ghostbusters, having appeared in all five of the films?

ANNIE: It’s wonderful to have had the great fortune to be cast in a film that kept going for 40 years. I mean, it’s biblical. Very few actors have that kind of thing in their life. And it always comes as a surprise. It’s like, oh, hey, we’re doing another one! I’m always happy to go back because I love the boys. We call them the boys, but they’re old boys now – but they’re sweet boys. And it’s also been wonderful for Jason Reitman whose father Ivan directed the first two  – to carry this on. I think that’s super special.

Q: What’s new for Janine this time? Is she still their receptionist at the NYC HQ 40 years later?

ANNIE: She’s still meddling in things. But she gets a promotion this time because I get to suit up in the flight suit and actually help bust the ghost. So I’m there for women of a certain age everywhere. Showing we’ve still got it!

Q: What’s it like working with Bill and Dan?

ANNIE: They’re still the same – both comic geniuses – but Bill is a singular event. It’s really fun to be on set and see them work, because they’re so playful and improvise. And of course Dan authored the original thing so he’s free to make whatever changes he wishes. They’re really fun to watch.

Here’s a sneak peek of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, opening exclusively in theaters March 22. 

Q: Has it been difficult saying farewell to the cast of Young Sheldon having literally watched grow up on the show over 140+ episodes?

ANNIE: It’s been really difficult. We have four more episodes to shoot so we’re savoring every one. And I can’t stop crying. I don’t know why. I mean, I’ve had plenty of shows canceled and ended for whatever reason, but we’re very attached and because the children were so tiny when we started – so tiny and talented. And they’re adults now and are like my family and I’m gonna cry again now.

Q: And you based Meemaw on your own mom?

ANNIE: Yes, she wasn’t quite as naughty but there’s a lot of qualities of her there. God bless her. She was funny and very Southern. I wish she’d been around to see me sending her up in this way.

Q: Are you like Meemaw with your own grandchildren?

ANNIE: Yes, but mine are very little. They’re just one and a half and two and a half now. So I’m the one who gives them a cracker when they beg for it. But, I hope to grow into that as they grow because they do love their grandmother, because she’s more forgiving than their mother is. As is usually the case.

Q: You and your director husband James Hayman spent a lot of time apart; you’re LA-based and he worked in New Orleans for a decade on NCIS. Are you finally able to spend more time together?

ANNIE: Well sort of! We’re independent spirits and he’s focusing mostly on his own projects. He’s a wonderful photographer too – so we mostly have family dinners on Sunday. It’s a wonderful tradition and we try to have as many kids and grandkids that are around in there.

Q: What are you most recognized for?

ANNIE: I would say Ghostbusters. And even though I’ve been on TV for 40 years practically daily, I pretty much run under the radar. I live a quiet life and I work most of the time. But I think more and more since Young Sheldon went on Netflix, and is the number one show there, being recognized has really shot up there.

Q: What’s your favorite role?

ANNIE: It’s usually the one that I’m doing presently. But I have to say that my favorite role was on a show called Any Day Now. It was about friendship and race in the south and I had a brilliant partner in Lorraine Toussaint. It was about things that were important to me and I felt that were important to the universe. I’m very proud of that.

Q: Any nutrition and exercise routines?

ANNIE: I try not to eat sugar and flour. And I eat simple foods, just vegetables and fruits and protein. I am a meat eater. Not a lot of red meat but chicken and fish. I swim every day that I can – which is usually about three days a week hopefully.  Swimming has kept me going. It’s sort of the only exercise that I have available to me because of my injuries. And so I have literally swum for my life – and I think it’s paid off because I’m still here.

Q: What’s your secret to aging with attitude?

ANNIE: Well, when I was very young, I almost died. I was in a very critical car accident. And I think when you have an experience where you almost lose your life very young it just gives you a sensational appetite for life. I think it’s a survivor kind of thing – It’s like Man, this is great, because I almost didn’t have it. So I just try to relish it.  It’s made me really take care of my body because it got broken up pretty badly. I have an appetite for life and I think I also have a knack for happiness, so I think that’s helped.

Gill Pringle began her career as a rock columnist for popular British newspapers, traveling the world with Madonna, U2 and Michael Jackson. Moving to Los Angeles 27 years ago, she interviews film and TV personalities for prestigious UK outlets, The Independent, The i-paper and The Sunday Times – and, of course, Senior Planet. A member of Critics Choice Association, BAFTA and AWFJ, she wrote the screenplay for 2016 Netflix family film, The 3 Tails Movie: A Mermaid Adventure. An award-winning writer, in 2021 she was honored by the Los Angeles Press Club with 1st prize at the NAEJ Awards.

Photo: Top: Janine (Annie Potts), Peter (Bill Murray), Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.  

Copyright© 2023 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. **All Images are Property of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. for promotional use only. Sale, duplication or transfer of this material is strictly prohibited. 

 Photos: (Top) Jaap Buitendijk; (inset) Kate Romero