Bill Murray’s formidable nickname for Sofia Coppola: “She’s got an inner titanium”
Bill Muray is a man with several reputations. He’s known as the quirky, absentminded Wes Anderson star of Rushmore, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Royal Tenenbaums. Several more Anderson films where you’ll recognize him as the exact same guy. He was a mainstay on Saturday Night Live between 1987 and 1990 and has his opinions about that. He’s also famous for being difficult to work with, belying his avuncular demeanour on screen.
Murray managed to stitch together a national profile as America’s confused Dad through roles in the Ghostbusters franchise, his personal eccentricities (like refusing to hire an agent and only auditioning for and accepting roles via his voicemail) and talk show appearances where he plays the same befuddled weirdo that he does on screen. It’s up to you to decide when he breaks character, if ever.
But while he’s usually playing the befuddled airhead in any role, comic or dramatic, he’s realized serious characters in dramatic roles. Broken Flowers, where he plays a depressed father, is a significant shout here. Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation is the most pertinent one. He starred as himself (or the version of himself that he likes to play on TV) going through a midlife crisis. If you’ve seen other Bill Murray movies, you may recognize a great deal of it.
Speaking with Variety, it’s recorded “She also isn’t a hothead, like some of her male counterparts, according to those who’ve worked with her. “Sofia is easygoing,” says her brother, Roman Coppola, who produces her films. “She doesn’t really fight.” But she’s got a tough spine. Bill Murray, who starred in “Translation,” came up with a nickname: the Velvet Hammer.”
Calling an acclaimed director “Velvet hammer”, especially a female one, is a bold choice. You could see that backfiring and perforating your skull. Talking to Colin Farrell in the same article, he recounts, “She’s got an inner titanium,” Farrell says. “She’s so clear in what she wants. She’s so strong in pursuing it. She has this intoxicatingly gentle demeanour that’s really beautiful to be around.” This is a more PR-friendly comment on Farrell’s part. Depending on whether you take “intoxicatingly gentle” as a compliment or not.
It barely needs saying that Sofia Coppola is Hollywood royalty, her parents, Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, being household names. Their daughter has asserted an equivalent status across her career, winning awards and accolades so far as her melancholy leading ladies can see. While she didn’t exactly win over the hearts of Godfather fans with her performance as Mary Corleone in her father’s famous trilogy, she did find her voice as a director and has told us some very fine stories.
Bill Murray may or may not be the guy that you find charming in Wes Anderson movies. Actors, especially character actors like Murray, are rarely (if ever) who we want them to be. You don’t like the idea of the goofy Dad in comfort food movies being sexist or mean. You do, however, probably understand that actors are weirdos, and a choreographed public persona doesn’t really ameliorate that.
