Wes Anderson recently defended acting legend Bill Murray after the actor had a handful of harassment accusations made against him.
Wes Anderson considers Bill Murray a part of his family
Speaking to IndieWire, Anderson — who has a longstanding relationship with the actor — recently said that he has an “extensive” history with Bill, and that while he doesn’t want to speak about someone else’s experience, he does consider Murray a part of his family.
“My experience with Bill is so extensive. Bill was such a great supporter of me from the very beginning,” Anderson said. “I don’t want to speak about somebody else’s experience, but he’s really 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 accusations against Murray sparked up in 2022, when actress Geena Davis’ book “Dying of Politeness” alleged that she had a toxic work experience with Murray while on the set of the 1990 film Quick Change. Davis said that Murray behaved inappropriately toward her during her audition and would be overly aggressive with her while on set.
Murray also had a formal complaint made against him while on the set of Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut Being Mortal, with allegations of the actor being inappropriate on set once again popping up and the film pausing production as a result. Murray confirmed the complaint in 2022 during an interview with CNBC, saying that he did something he thought was funny but that wasn’t taken that way.
“I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn’t taken that way,” Murray said during an interview at the conference with cable channel CNBC. “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. I think that’s where the real issue is, between our peace. We’re both professionals. We like each other’s work. We like each other, I think, and if you can’t really get along and trust each other, there’s no point in going further working together or making a movie as well.”
What else did Wes Anderson say about Bill Murray?
Anderson also revealed that Murray was initially set to be in Asteroid City, his next film, but that Murray ended up contracting COVID-19 before he was supposed to start filming.
“Bill was supposed to be in the movie [‘Asteroid City’],” said Anderson. “It’s not a great thing to say, ‘Well this person was supposed to play this part.’ Once someone gets a part, you’re supposed to say, ‘Well, this is their part.’ But in this case, because there was some confusion about what happened with Bill. He was supposed to play the motel manager who Steve Carell plays, and Bill got COVID four days before he was supposed to start shooting. He was in Ireland and in the case of our movie, we had schedules of so many people that are all puzzled around. The people who Bill was supposed to play scenes with were going to be gone by the time he cleared the COVID protocols and stuff. And in fact, he was quite sick. So Bill missed his part and Steve Carell came in quite suddenly. He was great, I loved having him. I met him, he arrived, and we were immediately shooting.”
“Then when Bill got better, he came to Spain,” Anderson continued. “At the end of the movie [where ‘Asteroid’ shot], we finished the movie, and Bill and I got in a car and drove to France. It was a great way to finish but it was the first time I hadn’t had him in a movie in a long time.”
Murray and Anderson’s relationship goes back many years, with Murray having starred in nine of Anderson’s films, including The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Murray’s last role in an Anderson film came in 2021’s The French Dispatch.