Wes Anderson on why Bill Murray is “the best person in the world to have” on a movie set
Like many other auteurs, Wes Anderson has developed a habit of working with somebody once, enjoying the experience, and then continuing to collaborate with them on a number of projects spanning years, if not decades.
Whether it’s Owen and Luke Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton, or even relatively new recruits like Tony Revolori and Rupert Friend, making a good impression on Anderson more often than not guarantees plenty of future work in the long term.
Of course, there’s only room for one performer at the top of the ladder as his most famous recurring creative partner, and there are no prizes for guessing who it is for Anderson. One of the few people who knows how to contact him directly without having to jump through hoops, Bill Murray has admitted that he doesn’t care what the part is; whenever his muse calls and offers him anything, he’s ready to go.
Murray currently holds the record of most consecutive Anderson films, having appeared in every single one of them from 1998’s Rushmore through to 2021’s The French Dispatch, a nine-in-a-row streak that puts him head and shoulders above any other actor. And yet, he’s still not the filmmaker’s most trusted lieutenant.
Music supervisor Randall Poster has been on board for everything post-Bottle Rocket, and cinematographer Robert Yeoman has only sat out Fantastic Mr. Fox, which makes them the only two members of the expanded Anderson universe that have been more prolific than the Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day legend.
With that in mind, when Anderson was contemplating which of the people he knew would come in handiest during times of crisis, it’s not revelatory to discover that he placed Murray at the front of the cue. Rather ironically for someone that’s been in their fair share of feuds over the years, though, the Academy Award winner maintained that the prickly comedian would be perfect to placate an angry mob.
“There are not that many people you can turn to to calm an angry mob. He can do that,” Anderson explained to Slate. “If you needed him to do that for you, he could do that. He can just get people together.” Lucy Liu and Richard Dreyfuss would probably disagree, but the Asteroid City helmer is confident if there are 50,000 folks amassed outside baying for blood, “he could probably come up with a few words and handle it pretty swiftly.”
Anderson would also call Murray not just “the ideal person to have with you,” but “the best person in the world to have on your side in any circumstances,” particularly on a movie set. Again, there’s evidence to the contrary, but based on their long-running partnership, it goes without saying the director has yet to incur Murray’s wrath to a serious extent.
