The 1989 movie and its leading man that Bill Murray couldn’t stand: “I wanted to kill him”
Based on history, it doesn’t take much for an actor to end up on the wrong side of Bill Murray, but it takes a special kind of fury for the Saturday Night Live veteran to wish death upon them.
Murray has had his issues with Lucy Liu, Angelica Huston, Richard Dreyfuss, and more on-camera counterparts, but he didn’t say he wanted to kill any of them. Was he being a massive arsehole? Based on their accounts, yes, he was, but the threat of physical violence was never on the table.
McG, on the other hand, was a different story. The Charlie’s Angels director alleged that his film’s Bosley headbutted him and almost left him with a broken nose, and in denying those accusations, Murray instead suggested that the filmmaker would be much better off if he were pierced by a lance and killed instead.
There was also a backstage incident with Jay Pharoah at SNL, who body-slammed one of the show’s most famous veterans after a belligerent and pissed-up Murray wouldn’t stop hitting him. That didn’t endanger his life, but had the star of a movie that the Ghostbuster loathed for existing been anywhere near him at any point, it could have been a different story.
Ever since his friend and colleague’s death in 1982, Murray has been incredibly protective of John Belushi and his legacy. He was adamant that his comedic cohort would have become the biggest star in the business had his life not been cut short, and when a biography on the Animal House and Blues Brothers star was published two years later, he was apoplectic with rage.
Unfortunately for him, Bob Woodward’s book, Wired, was given the feature-length treatment in 1989, with Michael Chiklis making his big-screen debut as Belushi. The biopic was awful, slaughtered by critics, trashed by John Landis, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, and more, and after going out of print on VHS, it’s never been given an official DVD or Blu-ray release, such is its reputation.
When Murray was asked who he could envision playing him in a biopic, he didn’t give an answer, deciding to go off-topic to reveal his eternal dissatisfaction with Wired. “I met a guy who played Belushi in a movie,” he offered. “And I wanted to kill him.” Harsh? Perhaps, especially when Chiklis has been nothing if not apologetic over his early career decision to play the comedy heavyweight.
“After Wired, everyone was afraid to touch me for fear of reprisal,” The Shield‘s Vic Mackey reflected. “It was a bittersweet situation. All of a sudden, I was starring in a major motion picture, and the next thing you know, I’m being asked by reporters, ‘Do you think you’ll be blackballed?'”
Chiklis even apologised to Jim Belushi for any pain, hurt, or damage he may have inadvertently caused by playing the part, but even after more than three decades, it’s clear that Murray will never be able to forgive him for having the gall to play his old pal in a picture.
