'I was literally shaking.' Geena Davis reveals Bill Murray's alleged abusive behaviour on film set.

Bill Murray's comedy legend is renowned. So too, now, is his alleged mean, bullying and inappropriate behaviour.

In April 2022, production of the film Being Mortal was suspended after Murray was accused of 'inappropriate behaviour' towards a woman on set. 

Six months later, more details about that incident were reported, and the news led to a domino effect of other actors sharing their own negative experiences with the 72-year-old.

Of course, allegations have been levelled at Murray before: his treatment of Lucy Liu has been discussed many times, and some of his feuds with fellow comedians are infamous. 

Here's everything we know.

'Inappropriate behaviour' and a US$100,000 settlement.

On October 10 2022, Puck reported that Murray had paid a US$100,000 settlement to a "much younger" female crew member on Being Mortal. In April, production on the Aziz Ansari directed film was suspended due to a complaint made against Murray for inappropriate behaviour.

In an April sit-down interview with CNBC, Murray addressed the allegations.

"I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn't taken that way," he said.

He said he'd had "quite an education" in the weeks following.

"The world is different than it was when I was a little kid," he said. "What I thought was funny as a little kid isn't necessarily what is funny now. Things change and the times change. It's important to me to figure it out. And the most important thing is that it's best for the other person."

Actor Bill Murray comments on the allegations of inappropriate behavior that led to production of the movie "Being Mortal" being halted: "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." pic.twitter.com/YSG6u0uMqe

— CNBC (@CNBC) April 30, 2022

According to Puck, Murray allegedly kissed and straddled a woman on set, who "interpreted his actions as entirely sexual" and filed a complaint.

The report cited numerous sources, and stated the incident occurred when Murray thought the woman had been flirting with him.

"So at one moment when the two were in close proximity near a bed that was part of the production, Murray started kissing her body and straddling her," it said, per People. "It was perhaps an unclear bit of physical comedy, but one that was unannounced."

"Then, he kissed her on the mouth, although when he did so, both Murray and the woman were wearing masks, owing to COVID protocols. Murray later said that he was just being jestful, but the woman interpreted his actions as entirely sexual. She was horrified."

Geena Davis.

This week, Davis sat down on the podcast, On With Kara Swisher, where she went deeper into details regarding Murray's alleged abuse on the set of Quick Change in 1990. 

"I went to meet with Bill Murray and his co-director and a producer in a hotel suite," Davis explained. "And, uh, I came in and went to sit down with everybody sitting there. But Bill Murray popped up and said, 'Hey, have you ever tried the thumper?' And I’m like, 'What? No. What’s that?' 'Well come try it.' 'No, no, no.'"

Davis said Murray pointed to the hotel bed where there was "a giant massage device with big handles on it." Murray allegedly told her, "'Lay down here. I wanna try it on you.'"

"I’m like, 'No, no, no thank you.' And he keeps at it," the actor recalled. "And I keep saying 'No' to the point where I would’ve had to scream at him, "Stop fucking asking me! I am not doing it. Do you understand?' Which I was far too timid to do. So I perched on the corner of the bed and let him do it, and he did it for like one second, and then didn’t ask how I liked it or anything. 

"So I realised it was just to see if he could force me to do something inappropriate."

Davis said the co-director and the producer were also in the hotel suite, but they did nothing to stop Murray. 

"And I looked to them hoping they would say, 'Come on, Bill, give it up' or something,” she explained.

Quick Change. Image: Warner Bros.

A situation unfolded between Davis and Murray in another way too, on the first day of shooting for the 1990 film. 

"We were shooting a huge scene out on an intersection in Manhattan with hundreds of extras and giant crew and all that stuff," Davis recalled. "And they said, 'We’re ready for you to come to set.' And I said, 'Well, costumes asked me to wait here one second. Can I do that, or should I come with you?'"

Davis went on to explain the assistant director had given her permission to stay and wait for costumes.

"Seconds later, Bill Murray - in a full clown costume, by the way - slams into the trailer with rage coming out of his eyeballs and starts screaming at me and swearing at me, 'Get the fuck out there! What the fuck are you doing? Move! Move!'" Davis continued. "And he got behind me and screamed in my ear, 'Move! Move faster! Move it!' And we’re getting to this intersection where there’s hundreds of people watching this, and he keeps it up and keeps it up until he says, 'Stand there' and points to a mark on the pavement and starts shooting."

Davis said she was "literally shaking" because of Murray and added, "Talking about it actually, it’s still - it’s very emotional for me because I felt so ashamed, you know, for somebody who wants to do things right. You know?"

Davis first revealed her alleged experience with Murray in her memoir Dying of Politeness  - which was released following the news of a financial settlement. 

She first spoke up about Murray in 2021 when she said he insisted on using an electric massager called 'The Thumper' on her during their first meeting in a hotel suite - which also happened to be her audition.

"I said no multiple times, but he wouldn't relent," Davis wrote.

In an interview with The Times, Davis said "I should have walked out of that or profoundly defended myself, in which case I wouldn’t have got the part".

She was cast as Phyllis Potter in the movie, and remembered being humiliated by Murray on set while she was waiting in her trailer for her wardrobe team.

Following the book's release, video footage of Murray and Davis appearing together on The Arsenio Hall Show, in which Murray can be seen rubbing her arm and pulling down the strap of her dress, resurfaced.

In the clip, Davis also tells the story of her audition, where she says Murray pulled her shirt out of her pants and started tickling her stomach. While she's laughing, she has since revealed she was deeply uncomfortable.

"It's awful," she said in a recent chat with the UK's iNews.

"Telling it that way, just as a humorous anecdote, I must have thought, ‘Well, it’s ultimately funny, or makes a good story,’ when in fact it was so devastating," she admitted. 

this is so disgusting on so many levels i still can't believe this actually happened on national television. also, the host and the audience??? geena davis handled it with absolute class and grace though. fuck you very much bill murray pic.twitter.com/YUvX7R7oZE

— Sarah Cavanaugh • atty-in-progress (@seiruhcavanaugh) October 15, 2022

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Davis said she was cooperative throughout their press tour for Quick Change.

"We look like we're having the most fun, and it's hard to remember what I thought while I was doing those things. Did I just go on autopilot because you're supposed to be positive and agreeable in publicity?"

Seth Green.

On an October 13, 2022 episode of the Good Mythical Morning YouTube show, actor Seth Green said he was nine years old when he had a physical altercation with Murray, backstage at Saturday Night Live.

Image: YouTube. 

"When I was nine years old, I did a spot on Saturday Night Live when Mary Gross was one of the on-the-scene anchor people for the news, and she did a whole thing about what kids think about the Christmas holiday," Green said.

He explained that he killed time by watching television backstage, and that Murray was the host of the episode.

"He saw me sitting on the arm of this chair and made a big fuss about me being in his seat. And I was like, 'That is absurd. I am sitting on the arm of this couch. There are several lengths of this sofa. Kindly eff off.' And he was like, 'That's my chair.'"

He recalled his mum suggesting he move so that Murray could sit where he wanted, but Green refused.

"Are you this much of a jerk? This rude to tell a nine year old to get out of your chair. What is this power play?"

Then it turned physical.

"He picked me up by my ankles. Held me upside down… He dangled me over a trash can and he was like, 'The trash goes in the trash can.' And I was screaming, and I swung my arms, flailed wildly, full contact with his balls. He dropped me in the trash can, the trash can falls over. I was horrified. I ran away, hid under the table in my dressing room and just cried."

Rob Schneider.

Also on October 13, 2022, while appearing on Sirirus XM's Jim Norton & Sam Roberts show, actor Rob Schneider said you never know "which Bill Murray you're gonna get".

"The nice Bill Murray? Or you're gonna get the tough Bill Murray?"

He recalled being part of the SNL cast when Murray hosted the show to promote Groundhog Day in 1993.

"He's super nice to fans. He wasn't very nice to us," Schneider said. "He hated us on Saturday Night Live when he hosted. Absolutely hated us. I mean, seething." 

"He hated Chris Farley with a passion," Schneider continued. 

"Like he was just seething looking at him... You just saw the way he looked at [Farley], and it was just naked rage, you know?" he said later. 

"I mean, he hated [Adam] Sandler. Really hated Sandler, too."

Schneider said the "least of the hate was to me," which he was pleased about.

"I took great pleasure in that he hated me less, because he’s my hero."

Lucy Liu.

Lucy Liu's run-in with Murray is one of the most infamous stories of his on-set behaviour. 

Back in 2000, they had an alleged dispute on the set of Charlie's Angels.

During a July 2021 interview with the Los Angeles Times' Asian Enough podcast, Liu opened up about a moment when Murray used "inexcusable and unacceptable" language towards her.

While the actress "wouldn't go into the specifics", she explained that one day when the actor arrived on set, after returning from a family gathering, he began to "hurl insults" that "kept going on and on."

"I was, like, 'Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me.' I couldn’t believe that it could be towards me, because what do I have to do with anything majorly important at that time?" she said.

"It was unjust, and it was uncalled for. Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it. So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it," Liu added. 

Anjelica Huston.

In 2019, Anjelica Huston told Vulture that Murray was rude to her while they filmed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. 

"He was a sh*t to me on Life Aquatic," she said. "The first week I was there, we were all in this little hotel, and he invited the entire cast to go and have dinner, except me. And everyone came down for dinner, a little dog-faced about my not being invited, and they were all like, 'Oh, you know, we don't really want to go.' That was worse than anything."

She said when they met again for filming in Florence, she confronted him.

"He said, 'Hey, how've you been? I missed you.' I said, 'You're full of sh*t. You didn't miss me.' He looked all confused for a moment. He's been a little nicer to me since. He showed up at my husband's funeral. He couldn't have been nicer that day. He showed up. A lot of people didn't."

Richard Dreyfuss.

Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss in What About Bob? Image: Touchstone Pictures. 

Also in 2019, actor Richard Dreyfuss described Murray as an "Irish drunken bully" who threw a glass ashtray at his head on the set of the 1991 film What About Bob?

During an interview with Yahoo Movies, he said: "He put his face next to me, nose-to-nose, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, 'Everyone hates you! You are tolerated!'"

"There was no time to react because he leaned back and he took a modern glass-blown ashtray," he continued. 

"He threw it at my face from [only a couple feet away]. And it weighed about three-quarters of a pound (300 grams). And he missed me. He tried to hit me. I got up and left."

The film's producer, Laura Ziskin, also told the Los Angeles Times the actor allegedly made threatening comments to her.

"Bill threatened to throw me across the parking lot and then broke my sunglasses and threw them across the parking lot," she told the publication.

Others who are believed to have clashed with Murray on various sets include director McG, Laura Ziskin, Harold Ramis and Chevy Chase.

Feature image: Youtube.

This article was published on October 17, 2022 and has since been updated with new information.