Keke Palmer wants Aziz Ansari to salvage Being Mortal following Bill Murray complaints
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Keke Palmer wants to finish production on Being Mortal, comedian Aziz Ansari's embattled directorial debut adapted from Atul Gawande's book of the same name.
Searchlight Pictures suspended production on the dramedy in April after a staffer filed a complaint against star Bill Murray that alleged inappropriate behavior. While she didn't explicitly reference her costar, Palmer told Variety that she hoped Ansari would be able to complete the "amazing film" at some point, which she presumed would require a "major rewrite" in the wake of the headlines about Murray.
"If somebody could figure it out, it would be Aziz," Palmer said at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday, sharing that she does not know if the film will be completed. "Obviously, we got cut short at a certain point but I will say that I am pretty devastated. It's an amazing film. If there is some way to be able to complete, salvage it, I would want to do it."
Ansari, Palmer said without referencing the controversy, "would probably have to do a major rewrite, but I know what we got was gold."
Details about the incident recently emerged in a report published by Puck earlier this month. Multiple sources claimed that Murray kissed and straddled a younger female production staffer on set. Murray, who reportedly felt that the staffer had been flirting with him, also allegedly kissed the staffer on her mouth, though the two were masked due to COVID-19 protocols.
The unnamed woman and a second staffer who witnessed the incident both filed complaints, which led Searchlight to suspend production, though a reason why was never indicated to cast and crew, per the report. Murray, who reportedly chalked up the incident to a miscommunication, and the woman ultimately came to a settlement with the former paying the latter "just north of $100,000."
Representatives for Murray, Ansari, and Searchlight have not respond to EW's request for comment about the report.
Kate Green/Getty Images Bill Murray
In April, Murray addressed the allegations but did not elaborate on any details of the complaint. "I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn't taken that way," the actor told CNBC. "The company, the movie studio, wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check it all out, investigate it, and so they stopped the production."
"But as of now, we're talking and we're trying to make peace with each other," he said. "We're both professionals. We like each other's work… and if you can't really get along and trust each other, there's no point in going further working together or making a movie as well."
Murray has also been making headlines for accusations of inappropriate behavior on set of Quick Change, a 1990 comedy costarring Geena Davis, and Saturday Night Live. Davis claimed that Murray screamed at her privately and in front of cast and crew on set of the film and used a massage device on her without her permission during her audition for the film, while Seth Green alleged that Murray dropped him into a trashcan backstage on SNL when he was 9.
Watch Palmer's interview from the Academy Museum Gala above.
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