Bill Murray is speaking out about being accused of sexual misconduct in 2022 while on the set of the film Being Mortal, which led to the comedy project being cancelled altogether.
In April 2022, a female crew member claimed Murray had kissed her on the mouth through masks worn on set of the film for COVID-19 safety protocol.
The 74-year-old actor said the allegation “still bothers” him and he felt like he was “barbecued” by the allegations.
“It wasn’t like I touched her,” Murray said in an interview with the New York Times. “I gave her a kiss through a mask. And she wasn’t a stranger.”
Murray said the complaint came from “someone that I worked with, that I had had lunch with on various days of the week.”
“We were all stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene,” Murray said. “I dunno what prompted me to do it. 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.”
Murray told the outlet that he doesn’t go “too many days or weeks without thinking of what happened.”
“It still bothers me because that movie was stopped by the human rights or ‘H&R’ of the Disney corporation,” the Ghostbusters actor said. “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.”
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“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.”
When asked if he thought he had learned anything from the experience, Murray said, “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,” he said. “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.”
Murray previously addressed the misconduct allegations during an appearance on CNBC in May 2022, when he described the incident as a “difference of opinion.”
“I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way,” he said during the interview at the annual shareholders meeting for Berkshire Hathaway. “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.”
Murray said he and the unnamed woman were talking it through and “trying to make peace with each other.”
“We’re both professionals,” Murray said. “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.”
The Caddyshack actor suggested that shifting perceptions of what’s considered appropriate humour played a factor.
“It’s been quite an education for me,” he said at the time. “The world is different than it was when I was a little kid. 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.”
“I think it’s a sad dog that can’t learn anymore. I don’t want to be that sad dog, and I have no intention of it,” he added.
Being Mortal starred Murray, Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari, who was writing, directing and producing the movie based on surgeon and author Dr. Atul Gawande’s 2014 non-fiction book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, about end-of-life care.
Production was initially suspended on the film after the crew member filed the complaint against Murray and was eventually shut down completely.
— With files from The Associated Press
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