Bill Murray has shared further insight into his alleged inappropriate misconduct on the set of Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut that prompted an internal investigation and ultimately led to the movie’s indefinite suspension.
In 2022, a female crew member filed a complaint against the Lost in Translation star, accusing him of straddling and kissing her through a mask. At the time, Murray described the incident as a “difference in opinion,” saying that he had done “something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way.”
It was reported that the actor eventually entered mediation with the woman and ended up paying a settlement of just over $100,000.
Reflecting on the incident in a new interview with the New York Times, Murray, 74, admitted that he’s still bothered by the way it was handled.
“I tried to make peace. I thought I was trying to make peace. I ended up being, to my mind, barbecued,” the Groundhog Day actor recalled of the backlash he faced.
“But someone that I worked with, that I had had lunch with on various days of the week — it was Covid, we were all wearing masks, and we were all stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene. I dunno what prompted me to do it,” he admitted.
“It’s something that I had done to someone else before, and I thought it was funny, and every time it happened, it was funny. I was wearing a mask, and I gave her a kiss, and she was wearing a mask. It wasn’t like I touched her, but it was just, I gave her a kiss through a mask. And she wasn’t a stranger,” Murray added.
“It still bothers me,” he continued, “because that movie was stopped by the human rights or ‘H & R’ of the Disney corporation, which is probably a little bit more strident than some other countries’. It turned out there were pre-existing conditions and all this kind of stuff. I’m like, what? How was anyone supposed to know anything like that? There was no conversation, there was nothing. There was no peacemaking, nothing. It went to this lunatic arbitration, which, if anyone ever suggests you go to arbitration: Don’t do it. Never ever do it. Because you think it’s justice, and it isn’t.”
Of whether he feels he learned something from the experience, the Caddyshack actor replied: “I think so. You can teach an old dog new tricks. But it was a great disappointment, because I thought I knew someone, and I did not. I certainly thought it was light. I thought it was funny. To me it’s still funny, the idea that you could give someone a kiss with a mask on. It’s still stupid. It’s all it was.”
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Murray, who currently co-stars alongside Naomi Watts in the new movie The Friend, recently surprised Watch What Happens Live viewers after he kissed Watts during last week’s episode.
At one point in the show, Watts, who’s married to Billy Crudup, was asked about the best movie or TV kiss of her career, after which Murray quickly grabbed her face and kissed her.
While Watts, 56, appeared visibly shocked, placing her face in her hands and shaking her head, she took the moment, which was intended to be a joke, in stride.
“You’ve got lipstick on her face,” she told Murray, asking: “Did I go red?”
Murray, who previously starred opposite Watts in the 2014 film St.Vincent, looked into the camera and put his thumb up.
