Murray outfoxes hollywood again
Saturday October 31 2009
At a recent press conference launching Wes Anderson's wonderful new animated film Fantastic Mr Fox, which opened here last week, George Clooney launched into a lengthy, mock tirade about how much he had not enjoyed working on the movie with voice co-star Bill Murray.
Clooney was joking about Murray's reputation as a difficult and mercurial actor (see panel), and Murray was up to him. Seated to Clooney's right and looking as ever like a boxer dog who's just been stung on the nose by a bee, he merely nodded slightly and said "that's accurate".
The response was typical of Murray's minimalist, world-weary humour. Like a sad clown in a rundown circus, he seems bemused that people find him funny, and slightly bewildered by his considerable and enduring success.
These days he's one of the most sought-after stars in the business, which is ironic when you consider the way he goes about his business. For Murray is the ultimate outsider, a major star without either an agent or a publicist, and who can only be reached through close friends or an anonymous freephone answering service. In the past this inaccessibility has lost him major roles in films such as Little Miss Sunshine and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but he doesn't seem unduly concerned.
He stays as far as he can from the studio publicity machine and guards his privacy zealously. Although he has a home in LA, he spends most of his time in his residences in Charleston, South Carolina, and Martha's Vineyard.
He has six children from his two marriages but never comments on his private life, though he cannot have enjoyed the acrimony of his recent divorce from second wife Jennifer Butler. She made some pretty wild accusations about the star's behaviour, and the court awarded her custody of their four children and a cool $7m payout in June of last year.
Murray seems deeply ambivalent about his film career. In the past he's retired for years on end, and he recently considered giving up acting. Happily for us he hasn't, and in fact the last six years or so have been his most successful ever, as he's proved himself capable of tackling serious dramatic roles as well as broad comedy.
We could, with some justification, claim him as one of our own because Bill Murray's Chicago heritage is mainly Irish-American. Born on September 21, 1950, he was the fifth of nine children, and was raised a Roman Catholic.
He first suspected he might have a flair for comedy when he made his stern father laugh when he fell off the kitchen table while impersonating Jimmy Cagney.
Educated by the Jesuits, he initially studied medicine after leaving school, but dropped out after being arrested for possession of marijuana.
Bill was at a loose end until his older brother Brian (a screenwriter and actor) got him involved with the legendary Second City improvisational comedy troupe. It was the perfect place for Murray to blossom, and he quickly developed his trademark dry and deadpan comedy style. In 1974, he moved to New York to further his acting career, and it turned out to be a wise move when he met John Belushi and was recruited to appear in the National Lampoon Radio Hour.
The syndicated success of that satirical radio programme led to an off-Broadway show, and when NBC launched a new variety show called Saturday Night Live in 1975, Murray, his brother Brian, Christopher Guest and Belushi were among its pioneering performers.
The show, which is still running today, would launch many a comedy career, but Murray's was something of a slow- burner.
His unusual, almost mournful comedy style was an acquired taste, and it wasn't until 1979 that he landed his first major movie role. A funny if not especially subtle comedy from Ivan Reitman about a shambolic Canadian summer camp, Meatballs helped put Murray on the Hollywood map. He played Hunter S Thompson in the 1980 film Where the Buffalo Roam, but achieved a far bigger box office success with Caddyshack, a farce based around golf, written by his brother.
He scored another hit in 1981 with the goofball comedy Stripes, but delivered a far more impressive turn in a cameo as Dustin Hoffman's laconic flatmate in Tootsie, the following year. The role that changed Murray's life forever came along in 1984, when his friend Ivan Reitman persuaded him to take on a part in a supernatural comedy that had been intended for the late John Belushi. Made for only $30m, Ghostbusters went on to make almost $300m and made Murray an international star.
His response to this turn of events was decisive. He ran away. Murray recently said he knew "Ghostbusters was going to be the biggest thing that ever happened and that being in the United States, with that level of fame, would be destructive for me at that time". So he went to Paris with his first wife and two sons, and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne.
When he returned to Hollywood a few years later, he appeared in a few stinkers (including an ill-advised Ghostbusters sequel) before striking gold with the delightful Groundhog Day (1993). His performance as a cynical weatherman doomed to repeat a dull day in a small town over and over until he learns his lesson was pitch- perfect, and the film is now considered a classic. And after a minor slump in the mid-'90s, his career was kickstarted by an appearance in a low-budget indie film called Rushmore (1998).
Wes Anderson's eccentric college comedy became a cult hit, and was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between actor and director. They've made four more films together, including Fantastic Mr Fox and the brilliant 2001 comedy The Royal Tenenbaums.
In 2002 Sofia Coppola spent seven months tracking Murray down to ask him if he'd star in a project of hers. At one point she phoned Al Pacino and asked him if he knew Murray! Eventually, she found him, and in Lost in Translation Murray revealed a whole new side in a straight role as a US actor who falls for a younger woman in Japan. He was nominated for an Oscar.
Murray was again outstanding as a ladies' man who looks up all his old girlfriends when he finds out he might have a son in Jim Jarmusch's moody 2005 film Broken Flowers. He was so happy with his performance that he considered retiring as he felt he'd never top it.
But, for now, trusted collaborators like Wes Anderson seem to be able to tempt him away from his beloved golf and back in the ring.
pwhitington@independent.ie
- PAUL WHITINGTON
Irish Independent
