Bill Murray, 74, Reflects on 50 Years of Acting: Fame Leads to ‘Stupid Things’

Bill Murray has admitted fame can ‘make you do a lot of stupid things’.

The two-time Golden Globe winner and Oscar-nominee, 74, opened up about his approach to fame when he was younger, admitting he ‘lost control for a year or two’.

The Lost In Translation actor – who shot to stardom in the 1970s – said while chatting to The Times: ‘You have to have an ego to work with. You need it to get the work done.

‘It’s not important to try to change your ego, or to keep it in check, or dial it down. What’s important is to watch it.’ 

The star continued: ‘Your first brush with fame — it’s not like it got any bigger but you lose control for a year or two.

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail’s new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 

Bill Murray, 74, admitted fame ‘make you do a lot of stupid things’ as he candidly looked back at his 50 years of acting career in a new interview (pictured in Cannes last month)

The twice Golden Globe winner and Oscar-nominated opened up about his first approach to fame when he was younger, where he claimed to ‘have lost control for a year or two’ (pictured with Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation)

‘You make a lot of mistakes, you do a lot of stupid things and you allow people to fluff you up.’  

His insightful interview comes after Bill opened up about the shocking sexual misconduct allegation that doomed his film Being Mortal from being released in 2022 and forever altered his public reputation.

In an interview with the New York Times over the weekend, the actor admitted that the incident still haunts him to this day — even as he remained defiant about the investigation’s outcome, which he said was not ‘justice.’

When asked if he thought about the incident while playing a man accused of inappropriate conduct in his new film The Friend, he replied, ‘I don’t go too many days or weeks without thinking of what happened in Being Mortal.’

Bill was again swept up in controversy as he promoted the new film when he grabbed his co-star Naomi Watts and kissed her unprompted while both appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

In the new interview, he shared his recollection of the circumstances leading up to the complaint about his behavior on Being Mortal, which was to be the directorial debut of its star, Aziz Ansari, before it was shelved.

The Kingpin star noted that the film was shot at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and the cast and crew were ‘all wearing masks and we were all stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene.’

Before recounting his alleged behavior, he prefaced it by saying, ‘I dunno 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.’

It comes after Bill opened up about the shocking sexual misconduct allegation that doomed his film Being Mortal from being released in 2022 and forever altered his public reputation (pictured in February in NYC)

He was accused by a female crew member who said he kissed her on set. He noted both wore masks at the time due to Covid. ‘It wasn’t like I touched her, but it was just, I gave her a kiss through a mask,’ he claimed (pictured in February)

He reportedly paid $100K in a settlement, and he blasted the ‘lunatic arbitration’ process, which he felt was biased against him (pictured with Naomi Watts on March)

Bill explained that, while wearing a mask, he gave the unnamed female crew member — who was also masked — a kiss. ‘It wasn’t like I touched her, but it was just, I gave her a kiss through a mask.’

He added, ‘And she wasn’t a stranger,’ and he said the two were having lunch multiple times a week before the incident.

Bill, who described feeling ‘barbecued’ in the aftermath of the complaint against him, described interventions by HR and subsequent arbitration that he felt were prejudiced against him. 

‘It turned out there were pre-existing conditions and all this kind of stuff,’ he said. 

‘I’m like, what? How was anyone supposed to know anything like that? There was no conversation, there was nothing. There was no peacemaking, nothing. 

‘It went to this lunatic arbitration, which, if anyone ever suggests you go to arbitration: Don’t do it. Never ever do it. Because you think it’s justice, and it isn’t,’ he continued.

The Riff Raff legend lambasted Disney’s HR department as being ‘more strident than some other countries’,’ and he called the decision not to complete the film a ‘great disappointment.

Bill reportedly paid a $100,000 settlement to the woman in 2022 at the conclusion of the investigation.