The “curse” that almost ruined Bill Murray’s ‘Groundhog Day’
If there’s one thing that unites actors, executives and producers, it’s a hunger for clarity. Actors like to know their characters’ motivations, Hollywood executives feel nervous by ambiguity in general, and audiences are often uncomfortable with the idea of not knowing the cause behind a particular narrative arc. That being said, there are certain films in which ambiguity is absolutely essential, and Groundhog Day is the perfect example. Here, producer Trevor Albert and screenwriter Danny Rubin, recall the “curse” that nearly ruined the 1993 Bill Murray classic.
Groundhog Day tells the story of disillusioned TV weatherman Phil, who, having travelled to the small town of Punxsutawney to cover its annual Groundhog Day event, finds himself reliving the same day over and over again. This inventive plot device allows for a profound philosophical exploration of what it means to live a good life, with Phil slowly coming to realise that happiness stems not from fulfilling personal ambitions but from helping others and embracing joy.
A modern philosophical treatise in the guise of a boy-meets-girl romcom, the film was an instant success. Its enduring relevance is in part down to the ambiguous cause of the time loop. However, according to producer Trevor Albert, the executives at Columbia were very resistant to the idea of a day repeating itself for no obvious reason. “Somebody whose name I won’t say said, ‘Why does the day repeat? Why the hell … I like it, it’s good, but I don’t understand why he gets stuck in this loop,” Albert told The Wrap.
While anybody that has seen the movie will tell you that this lack of explanation is precisely what makes Groundhog Day work so well – removing the need for Phil to seek some ultimately unimportant motivating factor – the studio wasn’t so sure. “‘Is it aliens that put a hex on him or what the f—, does he fall into some weird chemical?’” Albert was asked. “They wanted some tangible event to occur in the first act that shows someone has put a spell on him. And that was like, ‘F— no.’ There’s no freaking way. That really is pandering to the audience.”
When Columbia asked Rubin to rewrite the script to include a reason for the wrinkle in time, the screenwriter found himself inventing increasingly bizarre and ill-suited motivators, including a mad scientist, a spurned girlfriend and even a gypsy curse. “I played with all these ideas and I said, ‘it’s so arbitrary! It’s so stupid. Why do I have to choose?’”
Rubin’s original script had already changed a lot. In his first draft, it wasn’t until page ten that Phil’s imprisonment in the time loop was made clear. Associate Producer Whitney White then offered an alternative: that the movie should begin before the time-loop sets in. “It seemed like a very elegant solution to taking a movie that felt a little indie and making it more accessible,” Albert said. “The studio was delighted by that turn of events. You guys are playing ball with us. You’re making this a little easier for the audience to digest. Ultimately, it wasn’t a compromise. It actually made the script better.”
Sadly, the studio refused to green-light the production without an additional scene explaining Phil’s predicament. “We were horrified by it, but our solution was, let’s get the scene written. We’ll give it to them, but we’ll put that scene at the end of the schedule, and we’ll never shoot it. Or if we have to shoot it, we’ll never put it in the movie,” Albert explained. “And then I got the call. The studio, they want a reason. And I’m like, ‘What, a gypsy curse or something?’ And Trevor goes, ‘Yeah! Do that,’” Rubin said. “I was very happy to have Harold as an ally, and Trevor. They both understood that was a better idea than putting something in.”
It was a sensible move. The gypsy curse idea placated the studios, and its positioning at the tail-end of the schedule meant that Harold never got around to shooting it. According to Rubin, not having the expositional scene was an “existentially perfect” solution. You can watch one of our favourite scenes from Groundhog Day below.
