Bill Murray is opening up about the aftermath of the Being Mortal set complaints that forced the film into cancellation and left him “barbecued.”
In 2022, production on the Aziz Ansari-helmed film was suspended after a crew member filed a complaint against Murray. Three years later, the actor-comedian explained that the alleged incident involved a masked kiss that he “thought was funny.”
“I was wearing a mask, and I gave her a kiss, and she was wearing a mask,” he said in a Saturday profile 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.”
The Ghosterbusters star made a point to note that the altercation listed in the complaint occurred with “someone that I worked with, that I had had lunch with on various days of the week.” While he isn’t sure “what prompted me to do it,” he added that it happened when “we were all stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene.”
Moreover, Murray defended his actions, citing the event as “something that I had done to someone else before.” He added, “I thought it was funny, and every time it happened, it was funny.”
“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. It’s all it was.”
Being Mortal was backed by Searchlight Films, a production company owned by Disney. Murray cited the film’s backing from the Big Mouse and their “pre-existing conditions” as the reason why Being Mortal halted production and ultimately went unfinished.
“It still bothers me because that movie was stopped by the human rights or ‘H&R’ of the Disney corporation,” he 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.”
Once production was suspended, Murray said they “went to this lunatic arbitration,” while recommending that “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.” Though it’s been roughly three years since the controversy occurred, Murry said he doesn’t “go too many days or weeks without thinking of what happened in Being Mortal.”
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