In a recent interaction with IndieWire, director Wes Anderson, while speaking about Bill Murray and the actor’s exclusion from his upcoming film Asteroid City, said that Murray is his family and their working relationship will not be affected by various misconduct claims made against the actor.
Anderson, who has worked with Murray in nine films, said, “My experience with Bill is so extensive. Bill was such a great supporter of me from the very beginning. I don’t want to speak about somebody else’s experience, but he’s really part of my family. You know, he’s my daughter’s godfather. In fact, he actually baptized her. He’s the one who splashed the water.”
The filmmaker also added that the allegations against Murray will not affect their relationship. He also added that Murray’s exit from Asteroid City had nothing to do with the accusations against him.
Anderson said, “There was some confusion about what happened with Bill. He was supposed to play the motel manager who Steve Carell plays, and Bill got COVID four days before he was supposed to start shooting. He was in Ireland and in the case of our movie, we had schedules of so many people that are all puzzled around. The people who Bill was supposed to play scenes with were going to be gone by the time he cleared the COVID protocols and stuff. And in fact, he was quite sick. So Bill missed his part and Steve Carell came in quite suddenly. He was great, I loved having him. I met him, he arrived, and we were immediately shooting.”
This comes after Searchlight Pictures stopped production on Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut, Being Mortal, last April over complaints about Murray’s inappropriate behaviour at the film’s set. Later, Geena Davis said Murray harassed her during the making of the 1990 crime comedy Quick Change and in 2021, Lucy Liu revealed that Murray made insults to her on the set of Charlie’s Angels.
