Bill Murray Paid $100,000 Settlement for “Inappropriate Behavior”: Report

Wren Graves
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The post Bill Murray Paid $100,000 Settlement for “Inappropriate Behavior”: Report appeared first on Consequence.

Bill Murray paid a $100,000 settlement to a female staffer on the now-shelved movie, Being Mortal, according to a report in Puck. The news comes as Geena Davis’ new memoir alleges that Murray screamed at her on the set of their 1990 crime comedy, Quick Change.

Being Mortal was set to be director Aziz Ansari’s feature film debut before it was shelved due to Murray’s “inappropriate behavior.” At the time, Murray said, “I had a difference of opinion with a woman I’m working with. I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn’t taken that way.” He added, “The world is different than it was when I was a little kid… What I always thought was funny as a little kid isn’t necessarily the same as what’s funny now. Things change and the times change, so it’s important for me to figure it out.”

Now, Puck has shared details from the incident. Reportedly, Murray and a female staffer were wearing masks on set, and Murray began kissing her body. He also straddled her and, still wearing his mask, pressed his mouth to hers. Murray tried to laugh it off as a joke, but the woman interpreted his behavior as sexual and was “horrified.”

A source close to Murray said he felt terrible after the incident, especially after the film was put on pause and people seemed to be losing their jobs due to his behavior. He purportedly engaged the woman in a mediation process, which resulted in his paying her $100,000.

Allegedly, both Murray and the woman want to finish the film. But producers at Searchlight, which is owned by Disney, are wary of controversy. However, Searchlight may have trouble getting out of their contractual obligations. In order to avoid a legal battle, the company is allowing Ansari to shop the movie to other production companies, though there haven’t been any takers so far.

That may be due to the continuing involvement of Murray, whose reputation has taken some hits over the last two years. In 2021, Lucy Liu detailed a fight between herself and Murray on the set of 2000’s Charlie’s Angels. “As we’re doing the scene, Bill starts to sort of hurl insults, and I won’t get into the specifics, but it kept going on and on,” she said. “I would not stand down, and nor should I have… I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”

Geena Davis has shared more stories of his condescending and belittling behavior in her memoir, Dying of Politeness, out October 11th. Via Variety, at their first meeting  for Quick Change, Murray brought a massage device called a Thumper and, despite her emphatic refusals, insisted she use it.

“I said no multiple times, but he wouldn’t relent,” Davis wrote. “I would have had to yell at him and cause a scene if I was to get him to give up trying to force me to do it; the other men in the room did nothing to make it stop. I realized with profound sadness that I didn’t yet have the ability to withstand this onslaught — or to simply walk out.”

“I should have walked out of that or profoundly defended myself, in which case I wouldn’t have got the part,” she told The Times UK. “I could have avoided that treatment if I’d known how to react or what to do during the audition. But, you know, I was so non-confrontational that I just didn’t…”

Later, on set, after Davis was late to a call while waiting on wardrobe, Murray allegedly tracked her down in her trailer and began screaming at her. As she writes, he followed her all the way to the shoot, shouting belittling words in front of hundreds of cast members and crew workers.

Earlier this year, Murray dropped out of Wes Anderson’s new film, Asteroid City, after catching COVID-19. He can currently be seen starring opposite Zac Effron in Peter Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever.

Bill Murray Paid $100,000 Settlement for “Inappropriate Behavior”: Report
Wren Graves

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