Last year, the plug was pulled on Aziz Ansari’s attempted directorial debut, Being Mortal. An incident occurred with Bill Murray allegedly inappropriately kissing and straddling a female member of the film crew. The Ghostbusters star was hit with sexual misconduct allegations during filming and, as a result, the studio behind it, Searchlight Pictures, pulled the plug with over 50% of the film already shot. Ansari was allowed to shop the film (and the footage) to other buyers, but in the end, there seemed to be no takers for what’s likely seen as a tainted project. Wes Anderson, who worked with Bill Murray on nearly all his films, came to his defense and still stands by his friend. Anderson told IndieWire the incident will not deter him from working with Murray again. The Asteroid City director stated, “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.”
Anderson pointed out that Murray was to have a role in Asteroid City, “Bill was supposed to be in the movie [Asteroid City]. It’s not a great thing to say, ‘Well this person was supposed to play this part.’ Once someone gets a part, you’re supposed to say, ‘Well, this is their part.’ But in this case, because 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.”
He continued, “Then when Bill got better, he came to Spain. At the end of the movie [where Asteroid shot], we finished the movie, and Bill and I got in a car and drove to France. It was a great way to finish but it was the first time I hadn’t had him in a movie in a long time.”