Wes Anderson recently defended acting legend Bill Murray after a handful of harassment allegations were leveled against the actor.
Wes Anderson recently defended acting legend Bill Murray after a handful of harassment allegations were leveled against the actor.
Wes Anderson considers Bill Murray part of his family
Speak with IndieWireAnderson – who has a long-standing relationship with the actor – recently said that he has a “long” history with Bill and that while he doesn’t want to speak to Murray about anyone else’s experiences, he considers Murray part of his family.
“My experience with Bill is so extensive. Bill has been a huge supporter of mine from the start,” Anderson said. “I don’t want to talk about anyone else’s experience, but he’s really a part of my family. You know, he’s my daughter’s godfather. In fact, he actually baptized her. He’s the one who splashed the water.”
The allegations against Murray came in 2022 when actress Geena Davis, in her book Dying of Politeness, claimed she had a toxic work experience with Murray on the set of the 1990 film Quick Change. Davis said Murray behaved inappropriately towards her during her audition and was overly aggressive towards her on set.
A formal complaint was also filed against Murray during the filming of Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut, Being Mortal, with renewed allegations that the actor behaved inappropriately on set and production of the film was halted as a result. Murray confirmed the complaint in 2022 during an interview with CNBC, saying he did something he thought was funny but wasn’t taken that way.
“I did something that I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way,” Murray said during an interview with CNBC at the conference. “The company, the film studio, wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check and investigate everything, so they stopped production. But for now we are talking and trying to make peace with each other. I think that’s where the real problem lies: between our peace. We are both professionals. We like each other’s work. We like each other, I think, and if you don’t really get along and trust each other, there’s no point in continuing to work together or even making a film.”
What else did Wes Anderson say about Bill Murray?
Anderson also revealed that Murray was originally slated to be in his next film, Asteroid City, but contracted COVID-19 before he was scheduled to start filming.
“Bill was supposed to be in the movie (‘Asteroid City’),” Anderson said. “It’s not good to say, ‘Well, this person should play this role.’ As soon as someone gets a role, you should say, “Well, that’s their role.” But in this case, because there was some confusion about what happened to Bill. He was set to play the motel manager played by Steve Carell, and Bill contracted COVID four days before filming began. He was in Ireland and in the case of our film we had schedules with so many people all confused. The people Bill was supposed to play scenes with would be gone by the time he cleared the COVID protocols and whatnot. And indeed he was quite ill. So Bill missed his part and Steve Carell came in all of a sudden. He was great, loved having him. I met him, he came and we shot straight away.”
“When Bill got better, he came to Spain,” Anderson continued. “At the end of the movie (where ‘Asteroid’ was filmed) we finished the movie and Bill and I got in a car and drove to France. It was a great ending, but it was the first time I hadn’t had him in a film in a long time.”
Murray and Anderson’s relationship dates back many years, with Murray starring in nine of Anderson’s films including The Life Aquatic, starring Steve Zissou. Murray’s last role in an Anderson film came in 2021’s The French Dispatch.