The Oscar-nominated actor Bill Murray has been one of the most famous and beloved stars in Hollywood for decades. In a new interview, he’s opening up to make a surprising admission about fame.
‘You Do A Lot Of Stupid Things’
“You have to have an ego to work with, you need it to get the work done,” Murray, 74, told The Times. “It’s not important to try to change your ego, or to keep it in check, or dial it down. What’s important is to watch it.”
“Your first brush with fame — it’s not like it got any bigger but you lose control for a year or two,” he continued. “You make a lot of mistakes, you do a lot of stupid things and you allow people to fluff you up.”
Murray shot to fame in 1977 when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live! in the sketch comedy show’s second season. He would stay on the NBC television show for three seasons, leaving in 1980. Decades of success in film and television followed for Murray. He was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for 2003’s Lost In Translation.
Related: Bill Murray Reveals His One Major Regret – It Involves Clint Eastwood In A Surprising Way
Murray’s Difficult Few Years
This comes after a difficult few years for Murray. In 2022 a younger female production assistant accused the star of straddling and kissing her on the set of the film Being Mortal. At the time, they were each wearing COVID-19 face masks. Murray ended up paying $100,000 to settle the complaint. Production of the film was subsequently buried.
“It was a great disappointment because I thought I knew someone and I didn’t,” Murray later told The New York Times. “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.”
Full Story: Allegations Against Bill Murray Shut Down Film Production
Despite this incident, Murray has continued working. Indeed, he’s starred in 10 of the acclaimed director Wes Anderson’s 12 films. In the latest, The Phoenician Scheme, which hit theaters on May 30, Murray plays God. The movie also stars Benicio del Toro, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and Benedict Cumberbatch.
In his latest interview, Murray explained that saying “yes” to Anderson is always an easy thing to do.
“At this point I just say, ‘What time? Where are we going?’ Because from his first script I knew exactly what he wanted to do,” Murray stated. “I’m not going to be disappointed in what we make.”
Murray’s Current Tour
Murray is also currently on tour with the renowned German cellist Jan Vogler.
“We met boarding a plane in Berlin and I said, ‘Are you going to fit that thing [his cello] in the overhead?’ And he looked at me like I was mentally handicapped and said, ‘It has its own zeet,” Murray recounted. “Not only does it have its own zeet, it has a zeet in first class, and it has the window zeet in first class.’”
On their tour, the two men are joined by Vogler’s wife, violinist Mira Wang, as well as by pianist Vanessa Perez. The show includes Murray “bounding around the stage reading Walt Whitman and singing ‘I Feel Pretty’ from West Side Story.”
“The audience are expecting maybe it’s going to be funny because I’m in it,” Murray said. “Or maybe it’s going to be grim because there are three communists.”
Murray and Vogler have been performing this show since 2017. In the years since then, the quartet has performed in Australia, Iceland, Germany and the United States.
Murray is a true legend, and there will never be another one like him. After so many decades of success, he certainly knows a thing or two about being famous. In the end, young stars should probably take notice of what Bill Murray has to say about the pitfalls of fame!
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