The co-star Bill Murray loved terrorising: “There’s always more annoying behaviour”
It’s always hard to tell how true to themselves an actor is being when you see them on screen. Even though they’re embodying someone else, how easy are they finding it to act ruthlessly? Is the humour of their character coming naturally? What about when an actor is pretending to be really annoying – are they actually that annoying in real life?
For Bill Murray, it seems like terrorising his co-stars – for better or for worse – comes quite naturally to him. The actor has had his fair share of controversies over the years for his conduct with others (particularly with women), which has extended to allegations of sexual harassment and violence, as well as knowing how to wind people up.
For a time, Murray was somewhat of a cult figure, appearing in many beloved indie and hipster titles that cemented his status as a bit of a cinematic legend. People loved him in the various Wes Anderson movies he has appeared in and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, having grown up watching Murray in classic comedies like Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters. But now, it seems like more people are starting to realise that there’s a much darker side to the actor than we’d like to admit.
It appears (from the outside looking in) that being a nuisance comes easily to Murray, who has admitted to using improv as an excuse to be as annoying as possible. This was the case when Murray starred in the film What About Bob? alongside Richard Dreyfuss, who was the victim of the actor’s incredibly annoying approach to his character.
Talking to Deseret News, Murray said, “The script wasn’t nearly as annoying as I could be, so I had to improvise a lot in the movie. And even what you eventually see in the movie isn’t close to how really annoying I can be when I put my mind to it. There’s always more annoying behavior right below the surface.”
Murray didn’t hold back when it came to being as irritating as possible for the comedic role, explaining, “While [Dreyfuss] was talking, I got in real close to crowd him, I put my head on his shoulder, screamed into his ear and did all sorts of annoying things. Some of that was even in the script… no wait, none of that was in script. I made it all up.”
It sounds like Dreyfuss had an exhausting time on set, although Murray saw it differently. “It was quite liberating to play someone like that. When you’ve got as many problems as Bob has, anything goes. Anything that I could think of to annoy someone in a scene, particularly if it was Dreyfuss, I went with it.”
Personally, I reckon I’d have a hard time putting up with someone that irritating while trying to crack on with work – but I suppose Dreyfuss knew what he was getting into. Funny thing is, the pair were actually praised for their on-screen chemistry, so maybe Murray’s relentless wind-up act paid off in the end.
Maybe he should keep his habit of bothering people strictly to his on-screen performances, though.
