Bill Murray said he still thinks about the misconduct allegations levied against him.
“I don’t go too many days or weeks without thinking of what happened,” Murray 74, told The New York Times’ podcast “The Daily” in an interview published on Saturday, April 5, referencing the claims while promoting his new movie The Friend, in which he plays a not-so-great character.
“When you’ve performed as a horrible creep, you know that, ‘Hey, I have been that horrible creep and not seen it and not been aware of it,’” he continued, admitting that he still can’t believe something he thought was “funny” landed him in legal trouble.
In 2022, the production of Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut Being Mortal was shut down over complaints of Murray’s “inappropriate behavior” with someone he now says he “worked with, had lunch with on various days of the week and so forth.” The Oscar nominee explained he was trying to bring “lightness” to the “miserable” subject matter of the film, which is based on Atul Gawande’s eponymous nonfiction book about the end of life.
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“I thought I was trying to make peace, I ended up, in my mind, being barbecued,” he told “The Daily” of going into arbitration over the incident. “It was Covid, we were all wearing masks and we were all just stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene. And I don’t know what prompted me to do it, it’s something that I had done to someone else before and I thought it was funny and every time it happened it was funny. I was wearing a mask and I gave her a kiss and she was wearing a mask. It wasn’t like I touched her, it was just [makes smooching sound], I gave her a kiss through a mask, through another mask, to another person. And she wasn’t a stranger.”
He continued, “You know, you can teach an old dog new tricks. But I just thought it was a disappointment. It was a great disappointment because I thought I knew someone and I did not. And I certainly thought it was light and I thought it was funny. And to me it’s still funny, the idea that you could give someone a kiss with a mask on, it’s still stupid. That’s all it was.”
Murray went on to say that human resources shut down the movie’s production as there were “preexisting conditions” in place.
“It still bothers me because that movie was stopped by the, whatever they call — the human rights, the HR of the Disney corporation — which is probably a little bit more strident than some other countries,” he said. “It turned out there [were] preexisting conditions and all this kind of stuff, I’m like, ‘What?’ How is anyone supposed to know anything like that? There was to be no conversation, there was nothing, no peacemaking, nothing. And just went to this lunatic arbitration, which, if anyone ever suggests you go to arbitration: Don’t do it. Never ever do it. Because you think it’s justice, and it isn’t.”
Murray also discussed some of the other claims that surfaced after the Being Mortal incident, including one made by Richard Dreyfuss, who alleged that Murray threw an ashtray at him on the set of 1991’s What About Bob?
Murray refuted Dreyfuss’ claim, saying the ashtray was aimed more so at the ceiling and claiming that the story was “never gonna be true.”
“If I’d have thrown it at Dreyfuss, I’d have hit him,” Murray said.
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He also addressed Geena Davis’ impropriety claims after she wrote in her memoir, Dying of Politeness, that Murray sexually harassed and verbally abused her during the filming of 1990’s Quick Change.
Murray called her allegations “outrageous.” (Lucy Liu also claimed Murray “hurled insults” at her using “inexcusable and unacceptable” language during the filming of 2000’s Charlie’s Angels.)
When the NYT journalist said Murray didn’t need to “run through the list,” the Ghostbusters star added, “When someone has an episode like mine on this Being Mortal thing, the world goes searching for more proof that this person is a monster — an absolute monster. Well, I’ve had interactions with hundreds of thousands of people over 40, 50 years. Now, you can come up with half a dozen. If you really worked, you’d probably come up with a couple dozen.”
The woman who filed the Being Mortal complaint received a settlement of “just north of $100,000” from Murray, who also reportedly signed a non-disclosure agreement — despite his recent comments.
