Bill Murray addresses sexual misconduct allegations: 'I ended up being barbecued'

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Bill Murray is opening up on misconduct complaints that saw filming on one of his movies halted indefinitely.

Back in 2022, production on his movie Being Mortal was suspended after the comedian was accused of “inappropriate behaviour” and “a complaint (was) made against Murray.”

“I was wearing a mask, and I gave her a kiss, and she was wearing a mask,” he said in a recent interview with the New York Times. “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, 74, said he doesn’t go “too many days or weeks without thinking of what happened in Being Mortal,” but was insistent that he thought his actions were harmless.

“I tried to make peace. I thought I was trying to make peace. I ended up being, to my mind, barbecued. 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. 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,” he told the outlet.

After the complaint, shooting on Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut, which also starred Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer, was paused by Searchlight Pictures and never resumed.

“It still bothers me 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) preexisting conditions and all this kind of stuff, I’m like, ‘What?’ How is anyone supposed to know anything like that? There was to be no conversation, there was nothing, no peacemaking, nothing,” he said.

The Oscar nominee said the experience left him disappointed “because I thought I knew someone, and I did not.”

“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,” he said.

With a career that stretches back to the ’70s, Murray, whose latest film The Friend is in theatres now, said that the allegations left people looking for evidence that his behaviour was part of a pattern. But he assured the Times interviewer that the Being Mortal allegations weren’t representative of how he acts on film sets.

“When someone has an episode like mine on Being Mortal, the world goes searching for more proof that this person is a monster. An absolute monster,” he said. “Well, I’ve had interactions with hundreds of thousands of people over 40, 50 years. Now, you can come up with half a dozen. If you really worked, you’d probably come up with a couple dozen.”

Murray told CNBC in 2022 that the misconduct allegation was a “difference of opinion” with a woman he was working with on the film. “I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way,” he said at the time.

The Groundhog Day star also told CNBC that the fallout was a learning experience.

“You know what I always thought was funny as a little kid isn’t necessarily the same as what’s funny now,” he said. “Things change and times change, so it’s important for me to figure that out.”

The Times interviewer asked Murray about other accusations of on-set impropriety, including an incident while shooting 1991’s What About Bob? in which he allegedly threw a glass ashtray at Richard Dreyfuss’s head.

“If I’d have thrown it at Dreyfuss, I’d have hit him,” he said.

Murray also called Geena Davis’s claims in her memoir that he “dressed her down” a fabrication.

“Outrageous,” he responded.

Actress Lucy Liu also claimed the actor “hurled insults” at her while they filmed Charlie’s Angels together more than 20 years ago.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times’ Asian Enough podcast, Liu said that his language became “unacceptable” and she “stood up for myself.”

“No matter how low on the totem pole you may be or where you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down.”

The two later made up, but Murray spoke out about the incident in a 2009 interview with the Times of London, saying in part, “I will dismiss you completely if you are unprofessional and working with me.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com