Bill Murray is notoriously hard to reach. For starters, he doesn’t have an agent. Add to that that he uses an 800 number that you can only leave a message on and the man may as well be on another planet if you’re trying to cast him. We have to respect how limited he chooses to be, but Bill Murraty himself may have some new insights on how he approaches which movies he signs on for.
After making a surprise appearance at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Bill Murray sat down with critic Elvis Mitchell to admit that his approach to secrecy has made him the sort of enigma that has distanced him from movie studios. “I’ve been lazy. I don’t have an agent anymore, so I’m not the first person people think of to be in studio movies…Only in this last year, doing these [indie movies], has reawakened me about searching for material. I’ve lived the life of a bass… waiting for something to come down at me. If something lands in my mouth, I’ll eat it.”
Bill Murray has been selective throughout his career, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been in a wealth of movies, even in his 70s. And despite what he said about major studios being far from interested in wasting their time tracking him down, he has expanded his role as Peter Venkman for Columbia and even joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe through Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
And while the indies have been loyal to him and he to them (mostly…), Bill Murray has no doubt missed out on some major projects. But hopefully this new viewpoint will push him and the major studios to consider just what they both have sitting right there – even if he can be a difficult one to pin down.
As for upcoming projects, Bill Murray will be teaming with Wes Anderson for The Phoenician Scheme this year, while festival titles The Friend — reuniting him with St. Vincent co-star Naomi Watts — and Riff Raff are also awaiting release.
Do you prefer Bill Murray in indie or big budget movies? What’s the best of both worlds? Give us your picks in the comments section below.
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