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Bill Murray is coming clean about past instances of questionable behaviour — albeit without going into specifics.
Murray, 74, made an unscheduled appearance at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday and spoke about his film career and roles playing complex characters.
“It’s always interesting when you’re playing a guy who has done some damage,” Murray told film critic Elvis Mitchell, reported Entertainment Weekly.
“I know I’ve done some damage. It’s unconscious damage, but it’s some sort of penance to play them and to show that, you know, to show accepting responsibility for it.”
During the chat, Murray brought up the 2020 film On the Rocks, a comedic drama written and directed by Sofia Coppola that also stars Rashida Jones as his daughter.
In the movie, Murray plays an art dealer who was a longtime playboy and an emotionally distant father. They suspect her husband, played by Marlon Wayans, is cheating on her.
“I was answering for a lot of things through that role,” Murray said.
Two years later, production of the movie Being Mortal was halted following an incident involving Murray. A young female assistant had accused him of inappropriate on-set behaviour.
“I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way,” Murray said at the time. “The company, the movie studio, wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check it all out, investigate it and so they stopped the production. But as of now, we’re talking and we’re trying to make peace with each other.”
The movie, which didn’t resume production, was to be comedian and actor Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut and was to co-star Canadian actor Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer.
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Murray said then that he learned from the experience.
“The world is different than it was when I was a little kid,” he said. “What I always thought was funny as a little kid isn’t necessarily the same as what’s funny now. Things change and the times change, so it’s important for me to figure it out. And I think the most important thing is that it’s best for the other person.”
Murray was also asked about the choices he has made in recent years to work on independent and small-budget movies.
“I’ve been lazy,” he said, explaining that he doesn’t have an agent who would constantly pitch him acting work.
But Murray said indie movies have rekindled the acting bug.
“Only in this last year, doing these has re-awakened me about searching for material,” he said. “I’ve lived the life of a bass in a stream, just waiting for something to come down at me. If something lands in my mouth, I’ll eat it.”