Geena Davis, Seth Green, Lucy Liu, Rob Schneider… Several actors complain about Bill Murray’s behavior on set.
Last May, a complaint was filed against the American comedian bill murray for behavior deemed inappropriate on the set of the filmAziz Ansari, Being Mortal. The actor apologized, explaining “I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t“. The production of the feature film had been put on hold and has still not resumed.
Last week PuckNews (via The Playlist) published a report claiming that an agreement had been reached with the victim.
Bill Murray reacts to his accusation: “I thought it was funny and it wasn’t”
This weekend, several comedians from Saturday Night Live expressed the bad atmosphere on the set, caused by Murray. During the podcast Sirius-XM, Rob Schneiderr thus declared that the actor of Lost in Translation was rude to team members.
He’s nice to the fans, but he wasn’t very nice to us. He really hated us.
On his side, Seth Greenwho plays Oz in the series buffy the vampire slayerthere is also his testimony.
9 years old at the time of the events, Seth Green was sitting on the arm of the presenter’s chair, which visibly angered the latter. Seth Green says:
He grabbed me by the ankles and threw me into the trash can, shouting, “Trash, in the trash!” I was scared, ran away, hid under the table in my dressing room and cried.
For her part, the Oscar-winning actress Geena Daviswho has just published his memoirs Dying of Politenessrecounts having also been the victim of the bad temper of Bill Murray.
During the preparatory work for the detective comedy Quick Change in 1990, the actor and director would have insisted on massaging his back with a special device. The latter had to refuse several times.
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Geena Davis and Bill Murray in “Quick Change”
During the filming, Murray would then have humiliated the actress by yelling at her because of a delay (related to the time taken to put on her costume) in front of the entire team made up of more than 300 people.
“I was shaking all over, dying of shame“, writes Geena Davis, adding that Murray intended “to make sure that I knew my place“.
Geena Davis also says she was made uncomfortable by Bill Murray’s behavior during a duet interview in which the actor tried to lower the strap of her dress as she spoke.
“I defended myself, I do not regret it”
In July 2021, lucy liu had announced an altercation with Murray on the set of Charlie’s Angels in 2000. The latter had uttered insults “unacceptable and inexcusable“according to the actress who said at the time”I defended myself, and I don’t regret it“.
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Bill Murray and Lucy Liu in “Charlie’s Angels”
McGthe film’s director, backed his actress at the time and claimed that Bill Murray had butted her out while he was working on the project.
Bill Murray had already been angry with his friend, the director and actor Harold Ramis during the filming of the film An endless day in 1991. Murray wanted to bring a more subversive touch to the screenplay of Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis which he found too simple, but the duo refused.
This was a source of discord during the entire shoot, imposing a poisonous atmosphere within the team. Often in a bad mood, moody, he even happened to disappear from the set for several hours, to the great despair of the technical team.
Groundhog Day: Unmanageable Bill Murray on set
What about Being Mortal?
Suspended after the complaint filed last May, the production of Being Mortal by Aziz Ansari has still not resumed and according to the actress Keke Palmer (The Old Guard, Nope), the film may well never see the light of day with a month of shooting left.
Asked by variety at the Academy Museum gala in Los Angeles, Keke Palmer said: “We were cut off at some point and I’m sorry about that. It’s an extraordinary film. I really wish I could finish shooting and save this movie. But in this case, Aziz [Ansari] probably should do a huge rewrite job, but I know what we got was gold.“
Palmer did not address the controversy over his on-screen costar Bill Murray.
According to Variety, the distributor Searchlight Pictures would also no longer be involved. Being Mortal was an adaptation of the novel byAtul Gawande We are all mortal: what really matters at the end of life and covered topics such as palliative care and how medicine has evolved over time. Keke Palmer, Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen gave the reply to Bill Murray.
The 72-year-old actor is expected to appear in the film Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania in a still undisclosed role and has no other plans.