The Bill Murray cult classic Gwyneth Paltrow bombed her audition for: “She wasn’t funny”
Bill Murray has made more than his fair share of great comedy movies. During his 1980s prime, he appeared in the likes of Caddyshack, Scrooged, Stripes, and the first two ‘Ghostbusters’ movies. In the years since, he has formed a profitable partnership with Wes Anderson, returned to ‘Ghostbusters’ with, uhh, mixed results, and made memorable cameos in movies like Zombieland and Get Smart.
In 1991, he starred in the Frank Oz-directed What About Bob? Murray plays the title character, Bob Wiley, a mentally-unstable man who stalks his psychiatrist, Dr Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss), when he goes on holiday. Though far from the most famous or successful film in Murray’s arsenal, it got good reviews at the time and remains a firm favourite for those in the know. Even the actor himself has sung its praises.
Whilst Murray and Dreyfuss were the two big stars of the picture, the rest of the cast was populated by other faces you may recognise. Julie Hagerty (Elaine in the ‘Airplane!’ franchise) plays Fay, the wife of Dreyfuss’ character. Charlie Korsmo, who plays the Marvins’ son Siggy, had previously appeared in Dick Tracy and would go on to play Robin Williams’ son in the Stephen Spielberg classic Hook. Then there’s the curious case of Anna, the Marvins’ daughter.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the movie’s casting director, Glenn Daniels, who also worked on Wayne’s World and Tango & Cash, revealed that one future megastar read for the part of Anna. “A young lady named Gwyneth Paltrow… was brought into my office by Boaty Boatwright, who was a talent agent for many, many years,” he revealed. “She showed up at my office with Gwyneth without even a phone call. She just said, ‘Read her.’ Gwyneth hadn’t done anything at that point. Nothing. And as Boaty and I were talking, she just looked like a deer in headlights. I had no idea what she was doing there. But anyway, I read her and she wasn’t funny, and it was a comedy. I had to tell Boaty it wasn’t going to work.”
Paltrow would have still been a teenager in the early 1990s, right at the start of her acting career. Her big break in Se7en was still a couple of years away, and although she had connections in the business, being the daughter of Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner, that clearly wasn’t enough to sway Daniels’ decision. He ended up casting Kathryn Erbe in the role instead. She would go on to have a fairly modest career, which peaked with her starring role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
As for Paltrow, you really don’t need to be told how her career panned out. She became a major star in the 90s, winning a controversial ‘Best Actress’ Oscar for her role in Shakespeare in Love. She played Pepper Potts in various films across the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is the founder of the successful lifestyle company Goop, but the less said about that, the better. She also finally got her chance to work with Murray on The Royal Tenenbaums, although that turned out to be a bit of a nightmare.
Casting directors can’t always tell who’s going to be a big star when they first meet them. Daniels had to go with how he felt in the moment, which was that Paltrow simply wasn’t up to scratch. Although, with the power of hindsight, he probably wishes he’d just cast her anyway.
