Wes Anderson weighs in on Bill Murray’s misconduct allegations

‘My experience with Bill is so extensive,’ director said

Wes Anderson has made it clear that the misconduct allegations against Bill Muray won’t affect their working relationship.

In 2022, Searchlight Pictures paused production on Aziz Ansari’s directorial film debut, Being Mortal, due to a complaint allegedly made about “inappropriate behaviour” on set by Murray.

At the time, a letter, obtained by Vanity Fair, was sent to the cast and crew, reading: “Late last week, we were made aware of a complaint, and we immediately looked into it.

“After reviewing the circumstances, it has been decided that production cannot continue at this time. We are truly grateful to all of you for everything you’ve put into this project. Our hope is to resume production and are working with Aziz and [producer Youree Henley] to figure out that timing.”

On Monday (12 June), in a new interview with IndieWire, Anderson, 54, clarified that allegations made against Murray do not impact their working relationship.

“My experience with Bill is so extensive,” The Grand Budapest Hotel director said. “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 baptised her. He’s the one who splashed the water.”

Murray, 72, has appeared in nine of Anderson’s films over the years, including Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr Fox, and more.

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He was supposed to be in Anderson’s latest film Asteroid City, but missed out on the part after testing positive for Covid 19.

Speaking of Murray’s diagnosis, Anderson said: “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,” he added. “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.”