Bill Murray offers invaluable life advice and explains what it feels like to be Bill Murray
Ever wondered what it feels like to be Bill Murray? Why of course you have. The star of countless classics, including Lost In Translation, Scrooged, Ghostbusters and The Life Aquatic, the actor is – I think it’s fair to say – something of a living legend. To everyday Joes like you and me, the idea of inhabiting the body and mind of someone so revered, celebrated and treasured is quite incomprehensible, which is presumably what pushed an audience member at the Toronto Film Festival to ask Mr Murray: “What does it feel like to be you?”
Any other actor would have treated such a question as thinly-veiled idolatry and laughed it off. What makes Bill Murray’s response so interesting is that he uses it as an opportunity to explore something philosophers have been grappling with for literally thousands of years: the question of what it is to be a human being. This question is of particular importance to actors whose egos are constantly battered by waves of praise and criticism. Murray has been able to transcend the effects of both.
So, how does he do it? “Someone told me some secrets early on about living, and that you just have to remind yourself … you can do the very best you can when you’re very very relaxed,” he began. “No matter what it is, whatever your job is, the more relaxed you are the better you are. That’s sort of why I got into acting. I realized the more fun I had the better I did it and I thought, that’s a job I can be proud of. If I had to go to work and no matter what my condition, no matter what my mood is, no matter how I feel … if I can relax myself and enjoy what I’m doing and have fun with it, I can do my job really well. It has changed my life, learning that.”
Murray then proceeded to guide the audience through a short meditation, in which he asked them the same question he had just been posed: “Let’s all ask ourselves that question right now: What does it feel like to be you? What does it feel like to be you?” “Awesome!” someone in the crowd exclaims.
“Yeah. It feels good to be you, doesn’t it? It feels good, because there’s one thing that you are — you’re the only one that’s you, right? So you’re the only one that’s you, and we get confused sometimes — or I do, I think everyone does — you try to compete. You think, damn it, someone else is trying to be me. Someone else is trying to be me. But I don’t have to armour myself against those people; I don’t have to armour myself against that idea if I can really just relax and feel content in this way and this regard.”
Listen to Bill Murray, below.
