Bill Murray Finds Misconduct Allegation Moment 'Still Funny,' Film Being Shelved a 'Disappointment'

Production of the film was shut down over complaints of Murray's inappropriate behavior on set before the film itself was ultimately shelved.

Murray sat down with The New York Times to promote his new movie, The Friend, where he ironically plays a character in the film who has been accused of "inappropriate misconduct."

The publication did not hide from the irony and asked if he still thinks about his incident during Being Mortal.

"I don't go too many days or weeks without thinking of what happened," Murray said.

"It was Covid, we were all wearing masks and we were all stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene," he continued.

"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 noted.

"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."

"It turned out there were pre-existing conditions and all this kind of stuff," Murray added. "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."

Murray recalled his experience with "human rights or 'H & R' of the Disney corporation" as "more strident than some other countries," and blamed them for stopping the film from going ahead. He labelled the decision from Disney to shelve the film as a "great disappointment."

When asked if he took anything away from the experience, the 74-year-old started his answer by saying: "You know, you can teach an old dog new tricks."

He went on to add, "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," Murray said.

The incident led to a $100,000 settlement back in 2022. However, it hasn't been the first time someone has come out and alleged inappropriate behavior from Murray. Just recently, his costar Lucy Liu on Charlie's Angels opened up about her experience. Though she did not go into details, she claimed that he insulted her numerous times.

When the NYT reporter began listing Liu along with a couple other reported instances, Murray jumped in: "When someone has an episode like mine on this Being Mortal thing, the world goes searching for more proof that this person is a monster -- an absolute monster. 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."

Based on Atul Gawande’s 2014 book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End the film was to star Murray, Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer. The movie was ultimately never finished and was meant to be Ansari's directorial debut.