Bill Murray responds to allegations of inappropriate behavior that led to shutdown of his film

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Actor Bill Murray has broken his silence about his ‘inappropriate behavior’ on the set of his latest movie ‘Being Mortal’ that led to it being shut down last week. 

Murray told CNBC that he had a ‘difference of opinion’ with a woman he was working with on the film, but did not name the woman or give any details about what happened.

The film, which was written and being directed by comedian Aziz Anzari, was set to star Seth Rogan and Keke Palmer, as well as Murray. 

‘I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way,’ he told CNBC during a special interview at Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings event on Saturday.

‘As of now we are talking and we are trying to make peace with each other,’ Murray said. ‘We are both professionals, we like each others’ work, we like each other I think and if we can’t really get along and trust each other there’s no point in going further working together or making the movie as well. It’s been quite an education for me.’

Searchlight Pictures suspended production on the film after Murray was accused of inappropriate behavior, Variety reported. A letter was sent to the cast and crew informing them of the situation. 

Filming on Being Mortal was halways completed before production was shut down and it was slated for release in 2023, but for now it is unclear if Murray will continue on with the project or if he will be recast. 

‘Being Mortal,’ based on Atul Gawande’s nonfiction book ‘Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,’ starred Murray, as well as Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogan. 

Murray told CNBC that he was optimistic that ‘we are going to make peace’ and that production will restart, but added that he’ll only do so if the woman is comfortable doing so.

‘I think it’s a sad dog that can’t learn anymore,’ Murray said. ‘That’s a really sad puppy that can’t learn anymore. I don’t want to be that sad dog and I have no intention of it.’

‘What would make me the happiest would be to put my boots on and for both of us to go back into work and be able to trust each other and work at the work that we’ve both spent a lot of time developing the skill of,’ he added.

This is not the first incident Murray has encountered on a film set. 

On the set of the 2000 action-comedy ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ actress Lucy Liu reportedly confronted Murray for ‘hurling insults’ at her following a rewrite of a scene without his knowledge, Variety reported. 

Liu addressed the incident for the first time last year. She called Murray’s behavior ‘inexcusable and unacceptable.’ 

Lui claimed on a 2021 Asian Enough podcast episode that the team had to rework a scene so Murry could attend a family gathering. 

‘As we’re doing the scene, Bill starts to sort of hurl insults, and I won’t get into the specifics, but it kept going on and on. I was, like: “Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me.”

‘Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it. So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.’

Murray defended his actions in The Times of London in 2009, stating: ‘Look, I will dismiss you completely if you are unprofessional and working with me.’

The star also reportedly headbutted Charlie’s Angel’s director Joseph McGinty Nichol – known professionally as McG, ‘square on the head.’ 

‘An inch later and my nose would have been obliterated,’ he told the Guardian in 2009. 

Murray denied the claim, telling the Times: ‘That’s bulls**t! That’s complete crap! I don’t know why he made that story up. He has a very active imagination.’

The Ghostbusters star also famously got into an altercation on the SNL set in 1978 with Chevy Chase. 

The fight reportedly broke out have the pair started to throw insults at each other. Murray importantly told Chase to go have sex with his then-wife Jacqueline Carlin. Chase retorted Murray’s face look ‘like something Neil Armstrong landed on,’ according to the book Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. 

 Murray alsoo once threw an ashtray at Richard Dreyfuss’ head after a ‘meltdown’ on set of What About Bob.

Dreyfuss’ son Ben, 35, revealed on Twitter on Thursday that Murray allegedly threw an ashtray at his father’s head and threatened to ‘throw’ a female producer across a parking lot and ‘ripped off her glasses’ during the meltdown after being denied an extra day off on the What About Bob set in 1991. 

Ben also revealed bodyguards had to be on set once filming resumed to separate the Murray and Dreyfuss, 74. 

‘Everyone walked off the production and flew back to LA and it only resumed after Disney hired some bodyguards to physically separate my dad and Bill Murray in between takes,’ he said in a tweet. 

Ben also revealed that he was ‘like five’ when the altercation happened, but still said it was some of his ‘fondest and earliest memories’ and praised the movie as being ‘good.’

The rumor of the ashtray incident, among others, have apparently been circling Hollywood for decades and Dreyfuss even addressed it in 2009. 

‘He put his face next to me, nose-to-nose, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘Everyone hates you! You are tolerated!’ the actor said at the time. 

‘There was no time to react because he leaned back and he took a modern glass-blown ashtray. He threw it at my face from [only a couple feet away]. And it weighed about three-quarters of a pound. And he missed me. He tried to hit me. I got up and left.’  

Dreyfuss had complained about Murray’s behavior toward ‘petite’ producer Laura Ziskin, who denied Murray the day off. In 2013, she revealed to the Los Angeles Times: ‘Bill … threatened to throw me across the parking lot and then broke my sunglasses and threw them across the parking lot.’ 

Ziskin has since died from breast cancer and the pair never worked together again. 

It eventually turned physical in front of several costars, including Laraine Newman, who described it as a ‘very sad and painful and awful’ on What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2021. 

This isn’t Murray’s first fight on set, he reportedly got physical with director Harold Ramis on Groundhog Day. The director allegedly threw the actor against the wall during the dispute. Ramis’ daughter claimed Murray didn’t talk to the director for 20 years after the fight and that Ramis’ was ‘heartbroken.’ 

Murray also reportedly hurt The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou costar Anjelica Huston’s feelings after he didn’t invite her out to a dinner party during filming. 

‘The first week I was there [filming in Italy], we were all in this little hotel, and he invited the entire cast to go and have dinner, except me,’ she said in 2019. 

The 71-year-old actor had the complaint filed against him last week before Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogan’s Being Mortal was temporarily shelved, it was claimed.

The details of the allegations were not immediately clear but Searchlight Pictures said an investigation has been launched.

Searchlight temporarily stopped production on Monday after the allegations against Murray emerged – but today said it would halt indefinitely pending investigation.

A letter to the cast and crew, seen by Deadline, said: ‘We know you are all concerned about the recent delays in production and want to give you an update.

‘Late last week, we were made aware of a complaint, and we immediately looked into it.

‘After reviewing the circumstances, it has been decided that production cannot continue at this time.’

The statement added: ‘We are truly grateful to all of you for everything you’ve put into this project.

‘Our hope is to resume production and are working with Aziz and Youree to figure out that timing.’

Being Mortal is an adaptation of the 2014 book by surgeon Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

The movie, written by Aziz Ansari, was scheduled for release in 2023 but it is unclear how the suspension will impact this.