Recently, Hollywood actor Bill Murray, who has starred in classic films such as "Groundhog Day" and "Lost in Tokyo", has been deeply involved in various negative news, and whether his future acting career will be affected is uncertain.
Bill Murray in Lost in Tokyo.
The new film "The Best Farewell" was stopped due to sexual harassment
Bill Murray, 72, has been in the industry for half a century. He first started as a stage comedian, became popular because of his participation in the TV show "Saturday Night Live", and starred in blockbuster comedies such as "Ghostbusters", "Lonely Rich Man" and "Groundhog Day" in the eighties and nineties, and became one of the top actors in Hollywood.
Young Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live.
Moreover, he not only blossomed in the field of commercial films, but also became a favorite actor of independent directors. For example, he is one of the regular team of director Wes Anderson, starring in the latter's "Youth", "Genius", "Life in Water", "Grand Budapest Hotel", "French Mission" and many other works. He has also cooperated with director Jim Jamusch in "Coffee and Cigarettes", "Broken Flower", "Zombies Are Not Dead" and other works. In 2004, he received his first and only Oscar nomination for starring Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Tokyo".
This time, Bill Murray's negative news was exposed to sexual harassment, workplace bullying and other situations, although it has not risen to the level of breaking the law for the time being, and the bad nature is not comparable to Harvey Weinstein and other Hollywood villains who have been overcome, but it has a great impact on his personal image, and for the various new films he is currently in production, it will inevitably cause public relations problems in the future.
Things go back to this spring, during the filming of Searchlight Pictures' new film Being Mortal. The film is the first time that comedian Aziz Ansari, who has participated in popular American dramas such as "The Park and Rest", has been directed for the first time, and co-stars Seth Rogen, Bill Murray and Kirko Palmer, among others. On April 18, the film suddenly broke the news of a work stoppage, because a female crew member protested Bill Murray's misconduct towards her. As for Murray, the public relations team came forward at the first time to apologize for his "not very understanding" behavior, but Searchlight Pictures still said that it would investigate the matter in depth, and the filming of "The Best Farewell" has been suspended until now.
At the end of April, Murray spoke about it on a TV show, saying that he "did something that he thought was humorous, but the other party obviously didn't think so." The studio wanted to handle the matter correctly, so it stopped filming and intervened in the investigation. But we are now close to reaching a settlement. We are both professional filmmakers and appreciate each other's work. I think we all have no ill intentions, we like each other, which is the premise of cooperation."
At present, the truth seems to be the opposite of what Murray said. On the one hand, the resumption of filming is far away. After all, the former 20th Century Searchlight Pictures has been incorporated into the Disney Group after the acquisition process. As one of Hollywood's most stressful studios of political correctness and corporate culture, Disney attaches great importance to such negative news, often killing problem projects. On the other hand, in the past few months, Murray has been secretive from the entire crew, and the company's gag order has obviously been implemented effectively.
By last week, more details had finally come to light. Some American media revealed that Murray had reached a settlement agreement with the female colleague, and Murray paid her a settlement fee of $100,000, and the specific misconduct was also learned by the media: during the filming, the 72-year-old veteran movie star forcibly threw the female staff member on a double bed used as a prop, and straddled her and forcibly kissed her body, making the latter frightened. Because of the disparity in power, the woman could not break free from Murray, and finally had to let her kiss forcefully - but because of Hollywood's epidemic prevention regulations at the time, both parties wore masks. Afterwards, she quickly reported Murray's wrongdoing to the film, and at least one colleague witnessed the whole process and was willing to testify for her.
Many people have exposed Murray's past misconduct
I don't know if it was pure coincidence or Skynet was restored and not leaked, less than 24 hours after this incident appeared in the media, actress Gina Davis, who has appeared in films such as "The End of the Road" and "Pink League", the memoir "Dying of Politeness" was officially released, and eagle-eyed readers quickly found the relevant chapter about her 1990 collaboration with Bill Murray on "Two Men, One Woman and Three Fugitives" (Quick Change).
Bill Murray and Gina Davis in Two Men, One Woman and Three Fugitives.
Gina Davis revealed in the book that the first time the two met at that time, they auditioned together in a hotel room, and there were many people present, but Bill Murray insisted on massaging her back with his beloved electric massager to make her comfortable. Davis felt embarrassed and repeatedly refused, and Murray insisted on repeating it. Because he didn't want things to make a big deal, Davis reluctantly agreed, but the knot was always there, so that he still haunted the matter in his memoirs years later. It is worth mentioning that in "Two Men, One Woman and Three Fugitives", Murray is not only the male number one, but also the co-director of the film, but it is also his only directorial work so far.
Subsequently, Rob Schneider, a comedian who has long participated in the "Weekend Night Live" event, also publicly stated that when they invited Murray back as a guest host after becoming famous on the show, he initially admired the senior comedy who came out of the program team, but he did not expect that he relied on the old and sold the old at the program recording scene, and his attitude towards several junior newcomers, including Adam Sandler, was very bad.
And comedian Seth Green also came forward at this time to expose Bill Murray's old bottom. Green is a child actor and became famous early because he played the son of Dr. Evil in the "Ace Spy" series. He recalled that when he was nine years old, he was invited to "Weekend Night Live", just in time for Bill Murray to be the guest host, but because of his unknowing, he sat in Bill Murray's exclusive chair backstage, causing the latter to be furious, directly pulled the little boy up, grabbed his feet, threw Green head down into a trash can, and ridiculed that "the destination of garbage should be a trash can." This incident made Green completely frightened at the time, hiding in the background and crying, and it is still difficult to hide his indignation when he re-mentioned it publicly more than a few decades later.
Seth Green (right) in Ace Spy.
In fact, Bill Murray's bad temper has been nothing news to insiders for years. When he collaborated with Richard Dreyfus on "Genius is Crazy", with Anjelica Houston in "Life in Water", and with Lucy Liu in "Thunderbolt Baby", there have been various unpleasant situations. In this regard, Bill Murray once explained domineeringly that those who don't like him, in fact, he doesn't bother to work with them at all, they don't understand what movies are and what acting is; As for director Wes Anderson and director Sophia Coppola, these are the people who really understand movies and acting, and they have a common language with him.
Angelica Houston had a bad time working with Bill Murray on Wes Anderson's Life in the Water.
Bill Murray and Lucy Liu (second from right) also had conflicts when they co-filmed "Thunderbolt Baby".
But then again, it's one thing to have a conflict with an actor's partner, and it's another to use self-righteous humor as an excuse to ignore other people's feelings. In recent years, Hollywood has focused on reflection and found that there are many successful seniors in the circle (mainly white middle-aged and elderly men), in fact, there are such situations: the perpetrator bases self-righteous humor on the victim's sacrifice and stoicism.
In this regard, Bill Murray also expressed some reflection in an interview at the end of April this year: "What I thought was interesting and fun when I was a child is not necessarily considered interesting and fun today." Times have changed, the world has changed, and it's time for me to think about these things. ”