“No one is going to believe you”: the complicated personality of Bill Murray, half a century of chaos on and off the set

Having Bill Murray in a film is a guarantee of many things: its commercial viability —that so many careers of

has propelled—, the immediate sympathy on the part of the public, an unexpected depth for the characters he plays thanks to the expressiveness of his face or the sparks of genius derived from the comedian's innate capacity for improvisation.

It is also a guarantee of not having a quiet shoot.

At the end of last April, the news broke of the pause in the recording of

Murray's last film, as a result of the actor's "inappropriate behavior", according to a member of the team told

With the production company Searchlight Pictures in full investigation, speculation about what could have happened pointed to something serious, due to precedents: attacks of anger, bad relationships with other colleagues or the unpredictability of the star's behavior were common and widely known in the industry, so that, to exceed his own bar and paralyze an entire shoot, the actor had to cross some unprecedented limit.

The fears began to be confirmed when the media

echoed an insider to the production, who said Murray was being "very stumpy," "put an arm around a woman, touched her hair," and caused "some women to feel uncomfortable."

However, both that source and another interviewee stressed that "everyone loves Bill" and that he did it "in a funny way": "He loves to flirt, he enjoys poetry and romance, but he always wraps it up in comedy .

It's not clear if he crossed a line."

After a silence of several days, Bill Murray gave an interview and offered his version of what happened, which supported the thesis of a failed joke: “There was a difference of opinion with a woman he was working with.

She did something that I considered funny and it was not understood that way, ”he declared to the CNBC network.

“The world is different from when I was little.

What I saw as funny as a child is not necessarily seen as funny now.

Things change and it's important for me to realize it," he explained, assuring that he was "trying to make peace" with the woman who filed the complaint and that everything that happened was "quite educational" for him.

And, far from victimizing himself, he exemplified: “I think that those who cannot learn anything new are the old dogs.

I don't want to be like an old dog."

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, in a scene from 'Lost in translation'.

In the absence of knowing the conclusions of the investigation, another reference to take into account about what could have happened was offered on Instagram by an actress who worked with Bill Murray in the film, Keke Palmer, who, without explicitly mentioning him and before production being suspended, he wrote, “Not everything always has to do with how good you are at your job… It has to do with how you show up at work.

Do you arrive on time?

Do you have a good attitude?

Are you efficient?

Are you flexible?

Do you stay calm under pressure?

Are you a good communicator?

Murray soon earned, from his beginnings on

, a great fame as a troubled actor.

Especially famous was his fist fight with Chevy Chase after a rapid verbal escalation, as a result of his tense exit from the program and his return a year later.

In 2019, actor Richard Dreyfuss spoke about his well-known falling out with Murray during the filming of

(1990), assuring that the actor threw an ashtray at his face.

Dreyfuss's son revealed that Disney had to hire bodyguards in full production of that film to protect the team and contain Murray.

He was also very famous for his disagreement with Lucy Liu, whom he addressed, according to the actress, "in very bad terms" while both performed

(2000): According to the version that some film workers gave in their day, Murray's insults and contempt for the acting skills of the actress reached the point that Liu ended up physically assaulting him with the support of her companions.

The 'Lost in Translation' actor spiced up his surprise appearances, before speeding off, saying, "No one is going to believe you."

With Bill Murray as a friend, likewise, there doesn't seem to be a need for enemies either.

Fellow comedian and frequent co-star Dan Aykroyd used to refer to him as The Murricane ("Hurricane Murray") because of his sudden severe mood swings.

And while

(1993) is, with permission from

(1984), the most popular comedy of the actor's career, also marked the end of his relationship with longtime director and collaborator Harold Ramis.

Murray, who was going through a divorce process, did not speak to his colleague during most of the filming and, as a mockery, hired a deaf-mute interpreter to communicate with him, without either of them knowing sign language. .

Ramis and Murray came to blows and did not reconcile until shortly before the former's death, in 2014. For the director, Murray's management of emotions was comparable to that of a child unable to express or obtain what he wants in any other way. that were not "tantrums".

A philosophy to the limit

In the book

(published in Spain in 2016 by Blackie Books), the journalist Gavin Edwards tried to summarize the philosophical principles that governed the mysterious figure of the star, surely one of the celebrities with the highest ratio of bizarre anecdotes witnessed by different witnesses.

Halfway between the biography and the documentary of sightings, in its different chapters a large number of contrasting stories were collected from ordinary people declaring all kinds of crazy encounters with the actor: Murray stealing potatoes from a bag from a stranger while waiting to cross a traffic light, showing up unexpectedly at university parties to wash the dishes, delivering pizzas to homes, serving cocktails in a bar, reaching into someone else's pockets to give away money,

spiced up these surprise appearances, before speeding off, was: "No one is going to believe you."

Edwards basically describes him in his book as a person on a constant personal quest to make the world a stranger place.

Anjelica Huston and Bill Murray, in a scene from 'Life Aquatic'.

Harold Ramis recalled an occasion, back in the days of

when they were both walking down the street when, out of the blue, a fan approached Murray to tell him how much he enjoyed his job.

"Bastard, I'm going to bite your nose off!"

It was, according to Ramis, the comic's angry and crazy response, who then struggled for a while with the passer-by until, finally, biting his nose.

The narrative of Edwards' book, which does not evade his violent controversies — nor does he shy away from accusations of “aggressive behavior” leveled by his ex-wife, costume designer Jennifer Butler, who won custody of their four children in the divorce proceeding — , fits well with what was expressed by the members of the

admitting that it's hard to tell when an actor is putting on a creative

and when he's misbehaving.

Also in relation to his professionalism, due to his documented allergy to following the scripts, his difficulty in arriving on time, his fondness for disappearing or, simply, being impossible to contact, since he refuses to have an agent and offers his telephone number or mail only to a very small circle of trust, under total risk of expulsion for whoever reveals it to third parties.

Some colleagues have eventually grown tired of working with him, such as producer Laura Ziskin, who, after a dozen collaborations, decided to stop passing her character off as normal after he threw her into a lake and broke her sunglasses. sun.

“What I always hope is that this situation wakes me up,” Murray told author Gavin Edwards when asked about his penchant for provoking bizarre moments: “And if I see that someone doesn't just jump in, I'm like, 'Okay, I'm going to try to wake someone up. that person'.

It's what I would like others to do for me, to wake me up, damn it."

Murray's half-smile has been enough for decades to make even his most aggrieved victims forgive him for everything.

Richard Dreyfuss claimed to have forgiven him for the ashtray incident.

The comedian also claimed to have reconciled with Lucy Liu.

He and Chevy Chase also became friends again.

And even filmmaker Richard Donner, with whom he discussed "every minute of shooting" in

ended up praising his "superb creativity."

"I just have a reputation for being difficult to work with from people I didn't like working with," Murray told

in 2018, giving the example of three directors who always repeated with him in their projects: Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola.

It remains to be seen if the actor also obtains forgiveness in the crisis that paralyzed

Even if it is based on incorporating learning and new tricks into his philosophy that would not be within the reach of an old dog

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