Cameron Diaz’s dream of being the second coming of Bill Murray
In 2000, when Cameron Diaz was asked to describe her dream career, it felt like a joke when she basically responded that she wanted what Bill Murray has.
It was a strange answer for several reasons, the first being that at the time, Murray was at the heart of controversy, with Diaz’s co-star, Lucy Liu, calling him out for his behaviour on the set of Charlie’s Angels. She claimed that the actor had used “inexcusable and unacceptable” language and she had lashed out in response, later doubling down on that as she said, “I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it”.
Murray has never been a stranger to controversy like that, because a few years later, Scarlett Johansson wouldn’t have much nice to say about the actor after filming Lost In Translation, adding to the various reports of the man being rude, divaish or even outright inappropriate on sets. Broadly, he is known as a man who, while being widely respected, isn’t liked very much.
There’s also a more simple strangeness of Diaz’s response, where obviously, the two have very different careers. To boil it down to its simplest fact, Murray is a man, and Diaz is a woman, specifically a woman who up until that point had been mostly cast as romantic leads.
But that’s exactly the point she’s getting at.
“Bill Murray comes in and out when he wants to and doesn’t care. People can’t find him if he doesn’t want to be found,” she told Nylon, as what she wants from Murray’s career is simply his freedom. As a woman in Hollywood, that’s something she’s never been afforded, not from paparazzi following her around, tabloids commenting on her body, or even from the wider male-dominated industry that still demands women be nice and friendly and likeable in order to get work. Quite clearly, that doesn’t apply to Murray.
“I would love to be able to do what I’m doing now as far as just…ride what I have working right now and then go and start a family and do that thing. And then be forgiven for that and be able to come back and find work for myself that would continue to challenge me,” she said, commenting on how all of these things are harder for women. If you step away from your career for a period, it’s far harder to return as the machine will simply replace you with someone younger.
As women in the industry often talk about, there’s also rife ageism where a female actor hits 30 and suddenly the only roles afforded to her are tired, mumsy ones, and that’s even before she becomes a mother herself and suddenly the world can only see her as that.
None of that impacts Murray, who’s able to move through his career being unlikable, taking breaks if he wants them, but always being able to return. For Diaz, watching on as they worked together for Charlie’s Angels, that seemed like a dream, but one that would never truly be attainable for a woman until the industry changed.
