Bill Murray Defends ‘Being Mortal’ Misconduct Allegations as ‘Still Funny,’ Says Disney Shelving Film Was a ‘Great Disappointment’

Bill Murray candidly reflected on the 2022 misconduct allegations that had him settling with a female colleague for $100,000 after he kissed her through COVID-mandated face masks. He defended his behavior as “still funny” and indicated it was blown out of proportion when he was “barbecued” for the incident that led to Disney shelving their project, “Being Mortal” — a move he said was a “great disappointment.”

“It wasn’t like I touched her, it was just, I gave her a kiss through a mask, through another mask, to another person. And it wasn’t, she wasn’t a stranger,” he said, speaking with “The Daily” podcast for The New York Times in a Saturday episode.

“I thought I knew someone, and I did not,” he later added. “And I thought it was, I certainly thought it was light, and I thought it was funny. And to me it’s still funny.”

In October 2022, Murray was accused by a female production staffer on Aziz Ansari’s “Being Mortal” of inappropriate behavior that involved kissing her face and body while they both wore masks. Several outlets at the time reported Murray straddled the younger female assistant and that she was “horrified,” maintaining it was a sexual advance while Murray said it was a joke.

“The Daily” opened the topic in the latter third of their hour-long discussion because Walter, the character Murray plays in his new indie drama with Naomi Watts, “The Friend,” is similarly accused of inappropriate misconduct. The interview posited that “surely those parallels occurred to” the actor while filming.

“I don’t go too many days or weeks without thinking about what happened on ‘Being Mortal,'” Murray responded.

“I thought I was trying to make peace. I ended up being like, to my mind, barbecued,” he said, before breaking down in interpretation of the incident. “But someone that I worked with, you know, that I had had lunch with on various days of the week and so forth, we were all, it was COVID, we were all wearing masks, and we were all just stranded in this one room, listening to this crazy scene. And I don’t know what prompted me to do it. It’s something that I had done to someone else before, and I thought it was funny. And every time it happened, it was funny. I was wearing a mask, and I gave her a kiss, and she was wearing a mask.”

The actor, 74, added that “it still bothers me” that Disney decided to shelve the Searchlight production after his behavior was raised to corporate HR. He said the behavior was simply meant to lighten the mood of the production, which grappled with heavy, “gruesome” themes of mortality and followed “a man whose father is dying before his very eyes.”

“It still bothers me because that movie was stopped by the, whatever they call the human rights or HR of the Disney Corporation, which is probably a little bit more strident than some countries,” Murray said. “But, and I, you know, it turned out there was like preexisting conditions and all this kind of stuff. I’m like, what? Why was anyone supposed to know anything like that? It was like, and there was to be no conversation, there was no conversation, there was nothing, there was no peacemaking, nothing. And it went to this lunatic arbitration, which I recommend to anyone out there — if anyone ever suggests you go to arbitration, don’t do it. Never, ever do it. Because you think it’s, like, justice. And it isn’t.”

Still, Murray admitted when pressed that he felt he learned something from the experience: “You know, you can teach an old dog new tricks. But I just thought it was a disappointment. It was a great disappointment.”

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