The “unpleasant experience” in 1988 that was still traumatising Bill Murray in 1994
A miserable film shoot resulted in Bill Murray having a grudge against Christmas.
Bill Murray is somewhat of a Hollywood enigma, and has become the type of actor who feels like a folk hero. He doesn’t have an agent, can’t be tracked down, and will pop up all over the world like a court jester. Getting Murray to sign on to a film is no easy task, but it can result in pure movie magic. While Murray’s best work includes some of the funniest films ever made, it’s also best not to ever get on his bad side.
Despite the fact that Ghostbusters became one of the biggest hits of the ‘80s, Murray took a brief hiatus from acting, and only filmed a brief cameo in his friend Frank Oz’s musical Little Shop of Horrors two years later. Murray’s return to a leading role was in 1988 with Scrooged, a modern take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which was directed by the legendary Richard Donner.
Donner may have been responsible for ‘80s hits such as Superman II, The Goonies, and Lethal Weapon, but he did not get along with Murray, resulting in what the actor referred to as an “unpleasant experience.” While received well by many audiences, some of whom considered it to be a future holiday classic, Scrooged was much darker than its whimsical premise suggested, and featured Murray in one of his most unlikable roles.
Murray had detested the role so much that “he had no interest in pursuing another holiday-themed project,” which was an issue for the producers of The Santa Clause. The 1994 film had the clever premise of a struggling father who accidentally inherits the responsibility of being Santa Claus, and must save Christmas for both his son and all the children across the world.
The high-concept premise had the potential to be unbearably cheesy if it didn’t have a tongue-in-cheek sense-of-humour, and Murray seemed like the perfect sarcastic, cynical actor who could believably transform into a more wholesome holiday hero. It was after Murray passed that Disney reached out to many other A-listers, including Chevy Chase, Mel Gibson, Tom Selleck, Tom Hanks, and Robin Williams, before ultimately settling on Tim Allen.
Allen was not nearly as famous as any of the other stars in contention for the role, and had only two prior film credits. While his television show Home Improvement had become quite popular when it began airing in 1991, The Santa Clause was his first shot at stardom, and he knocked it out of the park. While Murray may have been a bit too aggressive and mean-spirited for the part, Allen was able to believably play a dishevelled father and took advantage of the self-deprecating humour.
The Santa Clause kicked off a successful ‘90s for Allen, as he had been working on doing the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story prior to the Christmas film’s production. While Toy Story was met with scepticism during its early stages, as Pixar was an unproven producer and 3D animation was a novelty, it obviously silenced all doubters when it became a massive hit and initiated a new era of family entertainment.
Allen lucked out and scored many other family film roles in the aftermath, including Jungle 2 Jungle, For Richer or Poorer, and Galaxy Quest.
