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The actors and directors who absolutely detest Bill Murray: “He was a drunken bully”

Sun 25 May 2025 15:52, UK

The undoubtedly iconic Bill Murray is something of a Marmite actor. His on-screen performances have captivated the hearts of audiences for more than five decades, and he possesses a sort of “drunken uncle” charm that so many actors his age can only dream of. However, there have been several instances of misbehaviour on set with Murray that have led to him somewhat losing his reputation.

There’s no doubt as to Murray’s talents as a comic actor, but with several allegations of misconduct in his personal life, there is no shortage of figures within Hollywood and the wider movie industry who actually seem to detest the star, and many of them have gone on record to express their distaste.

Directors have hardly been spared from Murray’s scorn, with Richard Donner taking plenty of flak on Scrooged. In addition to saying, “he shot a big, long, sloppy movie”, Murray described the experience itself as a “fair amount of misery.” For his part, Donner labelled his leading man as “superbly creative but occasionally difficult,” ensuring that their rivalry wasn’t all one-way traffic.

Not even his Ghostbusters collaborator and long-time friend Harold Ramis was safe, with Groundhog Day fracturing their close relationship. After repeatedly clashing during production, they weren’t on speaking terms for over 20 years, something Murray fortunately took it upon himself to remedy prior to Ramis’ passing in February of 2014. There are many more instances.

First up is the legendary director Quentin Tarantino, who has been less than impressed with Murray’s performances. When appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, Tarantino explained that he was often dumbfounded as to why Murray often took all the limelight compared to his former Saturday Night Live co-star Chevy Chase.

Chevy Chase - Bill Murray - Caddyshack - Far Out Magazine — Credit: Warner Bros.

“The critics always really preferred Bill Murray movies to Chevy Chase movies,” Tarantino said. “However, it does seem as if the point of all the Bill Murray movies is that he’s this kind of hip, cool, curmudgeon, smartarse guy, who, in the last 20 minutes, gets a transformation and becomes this nice guy and almost apologises for who he was.”

Continuing to explain his disdain for Murray in light of Chase, the director added, “Chevy Chase movies don’t play that shit,” he vehemently said. “Chevy Chase is the same supercilious asshole at the end of the movie that he is at the beginning. He never changes in his stuff. He’s always like a bit of a dick. And he’s always completely sarcastic”.

Now, of course, Murray is no stranger to a feud with Chase himself, either. Murray had arrived on Saturday Night Live a year after Chase had appeared in the first season and was dubbed “the new Chevy”. An air of resentment arose in Chase, and he left the show soon after, and when he came back to host an episode of season three, the feud was still burning bright, and an actual punch-up ensued.

Murray and Harold Ramis (who had the gall to hire both Murray and Chase for Caddyshack) had worked together on several occasions, but their relationship came to a bitter end on the set of 1993’s Groundhog Day when the director grabbed Murray by the scruff of the neck and threw him up against a wall in the heat of a creative argument. The two didn’t speak for another twenty years.

Richard Dreyfuss is another actor who had few nice things to say about Murray, especially when the rumours of his inappropriate on-set behaviour first came to light. “He was an Irish drunken bully,” Dreyfuss told Role Recall. “I didn’t talk about it for years.” He then told a story of the kind of things that Murray would do that would upset so many around him.

“Bill just got drunk at dinner… He came back from dinner one night, and I said, ‘Read this script tweak, I think it’s really funny.” He put his face next to me. Nose-to-nose. And he screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘Everyone hates you! You are tolerated!’ There was no time to react because he leaned back and took a modern glass-blown ashtray. He threw it at my face from only a couple of feet away. And it weighed about three-quarters of a pound.” Ouch.

Elsewhere, the likes of Laura Ziskin took issue with Murray, who claimed that Murray threatened to throw her across a parking lot and broke her sunglasses in the process. This was years after Murray had thrown his What About Bob? co-star into a lake in the middle of an argument.

When Murray starred alongside Lucy Liu in Charlie’s Angels, he was said to have used “unacceptable and inexcusable” language, which Liu was not prepared to tolerate. Recalling the incident, she said in 2021, “I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down. I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”

Liu was rather polite in her assessment, which cannot be said for Anjelica Houston, who starred alongside Murray in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and called him “a shit” when the actor invited the whole cast out for dinner bar Houston. Just one of several people for whom Murray has never been the flavour of the month.