Bill Murray Admits He’s Been Lazy About Finding Work, Says He Relates to His Destructive Characters: ‘I’ve Done Some Damage’
Bill Murray concedes he hasn’t been proactive about finding work as an actor. The “Groundhog Day” and “Lost in Translation” star has appeared in just a few independent films, such as 2024’s ensemble crime comedy “Riff Raff” and Naomi Watts-led drama “The Friend,” in recent years.
“I’ve been lazy,” Murray said at Sundance Film Festival during a fireside chat on Sunday with critic Elvis Mitchell. “I don’t have an agent anymore, so I’m not the first person people think of to be in studio movies.”
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However, Murray, who reprised roles in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and last year’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” has a renewed desire to get back in front of the camera.
“Only in this last year, doing these [indie movies], has reawakened me about searching for material,” he said. “I’ve lived the life of a bass… waiting for something to come down at me. If something lands in my mouth, I’ll eat it.”
Though this wasn’t address in Sunday’s chat, Murray’s career has stalled after an April 2022 incident on the film “Being Mortal.” Searchlight Pictures suspended production over complaints about Murray’s inappropriate on-set behavior with a young female assistant. The movie, which marked the directorial debut of Aziz Ansari and co-starred Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer, never resumed filming.
The former “Saturday Night Live” star addressed the controversy at the time, saying “I had a difference of opinion with a woman I’m working with. I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way. The movie studio wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check it all out and investigate it and so they stopped the production.”
“Being Mortal” wasn’t Murray’s first on-set film clash. On the 2000 action-comedy “Charlie’s Angels,” star Lucy Liu reportedly confronted Murray for “hurling insults” at her following a rewrite of a scene without his knowledge. Meanwhile Geena Davis alleged that Murray harassed her during the making of their 1990 crime comedy “Quick Change, trying to use a massage device on her in a hotel room and then berating her while they were filming.
During Sunday’s chat, Mitchell asked Murray about playing men who “lead lives of enormous charm” while being “aware of how poisonous their charm can be.” They were referring to Murray’s recent roles in “Riff Raff,” about a former criminal whose life is thrown into turmoil when his old family appears for a long-awaited reckoning, and “The Friend,” in which Murray plays a writer who commits suicide and leaves his mentee to care for his Great Dane.
“It’s always interesting when you’re playing a guy who has done some damage. I’ve done some damage,” Murray said without getting specific about his own life. “It’s sort of a penance to play them; to show that you’re accepting responsibility for it. It’s certainly always unconscious damage you’re doing, but you are responsible for the damage you’re doing.”
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging, 45-minute long conversation, Murray discussed his longevity in Hollywood (“I had success, and it was lucrative. It paid for these shoes and socks”), his favorite co-star (“Robert Duvall is the best actor I ever worked with. But he could be cranky”), recent in-flight movie choices (“Jennifer Lawrence in ‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ that was pretty impressive”) and mortality (“You have to be unafraid to die in life and on stage”).
He took the latter topic to the crowd, asking the tightly-packed room, “Who here is scared to die? You gotta get over that. It’s a waste of time.”
Murray was self-deprecating when his jokes didn’t land with the audience. Mitchell brought up the actor’s time on “Saturday Night Live,” to which Murray responded, “that show is never going to work.” Cue the crickets from the congregation. “I thought I’d get a laugh out of that… it’s been on for 50 years,” Murray lamented. “I’m so alone up here.” Later, when another jab from Murray fell flat, he cracked: “You don’t see me quitting… I’m going to keep trying with you people.”
Murray doesn’t mind being his own harshest critic. He doesn’t seek out his old projects, but when something comes on television, he’ll tune in long enough to see if the comedy still works today. “Not everything holds up,” he admits. One that definitely does, he attests, is “What About Bob?,” a 1991 farce about a patient who follows his doctor on vacation.
“I hadn’t seen it for 15 years,” Murray said. “I saw it and said, ‘God damn, it was funny.'”
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