The movie Bill Murray wouldn’t make unless he was hand-delivered the script
If there’s one thing that is supposed to tug at our heartstrings, it’s films about dogs. Beethoven, Old Yeller and Marley and Me are all beloved additions to the canine cinematic universe and a bread-and-butter tear-jerker tactic from Hollywood screenwriters. But with the upcoming release of The Friend, we may have a new spin on this classic tale.
The Friend was based on the novel of the same name written by Sigrid Nunez, which follows a writer dealing with the death of her friend, suddenly tasked with looking after the dog they left behind. But more importantly, the story is about grief, loss and the importance of friendship.
It was then adapted by directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee, who cast Naomi Watts and Bill Murray in the lead roles, who had previously worked together on St Vincent in 2014, with the team joking about how this connection was the only way they could get Murray to sign onto the project.
Murray is a famously elusive and rather difficult person to get a hold of, with no agent and a refusal to read or respond to emails. The actor prefers to handle his correspondence in perhaps the most inconvenient way, which is to always communicate in person. And so, when Watts was cast in the project, and they floated around the idea of also casting Murray, they knew that Watts had a working relationship with him and could potentially help them put the script in his hands.
Watts was initially sceptical and wondered whether she had purely been cast to help reach Murray, saying, “I instantly just fell in love with that idea and made it my mission to make it happen. At first, I was a little defensive and said, ‘Wait, are you just using me to get to Bill Murray? Is that what this is about? ‘That speaks to my self-esteem. [Laughs] But yes, I loved the idea. I thought I’d take a shot at it. I sent him a text, and he responded right away. But also, the other caveat is that you will not be able to send him an email. He’s not gonna read it digitally. We had to have the script printed and hand-delivered by me. Yours truly. I managed to track down where he was at a certain time”.
Despite the complications in tracking down Murray, once the project fell into his hands, he read both the novel and script and loved the idea. While the film has light-heartedness at its core, Watts said the film grapples with emotionally heavy themes, describing the questions it poses in how we navigate “grief and inconvenience and anger all at the same time”.
Despite the industry rule that you should never work with children and animals, the dog that stars alongside Murray and Watts, Bing, is said to be an equal rival to their talent and on-screen charisma, with Watt’s saying, “He will break your heart and melt you unless you are heartless altogether”.
