“He should be pierced with a lance”: the director Bill Murray said “deserves to die”
Thanks to his occasionally abrasive personality and career-long habit of doing whatever he wants, Bill Murray has fallen out with a few directors over the years. However, there’s only one that he actively wished death upon, and he didn’t want it to be quick and painless, either.
Harold Ramis may have been a former close friend of his Stripes, Meatballs, and Ghostbusters collaborator, but when they worked together as director and star on Groundhog Day, it was the end of their personal and professional relationship, with Murray regretting that he never truly reconciled with the filmmaker before his death.
He hardly got along swimmingly with his Scrooged director, Richard Donner, and things didn’t go to plan when he worked with first-time director Aziz Ansari on Being Mortal, with allegations of on-set misconduct torpedoing the entire picture and forcing the comedy veteran to undergo a period of self-reflection, not that he went so far as to accept responsibility for his actions.
Of course, the Academy Award nominee and Saturday Night Live alum has butted heads with his fair share of co-stars, too. Lucy Liu hated every second she spent in his orbit when they shared scenes in Charlie’s Angels, and the uncomfortable atmosphere was only exacerbated by Murray’s disdain for the action comedy’s director, McG.
The filmmaker, who so far has failed to make a good movie despite having over a quarter of a century and more than a dozen attempts to do so, claimed that Murray had tried to headbutt him, and if his aim had been slightly more true, “My nose would have been obliterated.” When the subject was raised with the alleged assailant, he denied it, and also fired a few shots of his own.
“That’s bullshit! That’s complete crap!” he told The Times. “I don’t know why he made that story up. He has a very active imagination. No! He deserves to die. He should be pierced with a lance, not headbutted.” That’s an unusual and highly specific fate to wish upon anybody, but Murray was certain the best way for McG to meet his demise was at the hands of an implement that hasn’t been popular as a weapon of mass destruction since firearms were invented.
He isn’t the only big-name actor to voice their frustrations with McG, but at least Christian Bale didn’t want him dead. The only memorable thing about Terminator Salvation was the method man’s outburst being caught on tape and widely circulated, and he knew the movie was shite. He had to be talked into making it in the first place, and once he did, he politely let everyone know he wouldn’t consider working with the man born Joseph McGinty Nichol ever again.
The bad news for Murray is that nobody has conspired to murder McG with a lance as of yet, although it can’t be ruled out with 100% certainty that it’s not going to happen. Yes, the chances are incredibly remote, but there are no guarantees in this life, even if the only scenario where it could come to fruition is if he does it himself.
