Bill Murray I’m sure most of us would agree is a living legend with a brilliant filmography marred somewhat by the inclusion of the grim Garfield movie of 2004 and its sequel two years later. What does this have to do with the Coen brothers? Well something… and nothing…
He explained in a recent interview that he only took the gig because he mistakenly though Joel Coen was involved. Unfortunately for Mr. Murray it wasn’t our Joel, the Joel from the Coen brothers but Joel Cohen (with a crucial H in the middle), writer of the original Toy Story (yay!) and masterpieces like Cheaper By The Dozen (un-yay!).
Let Bill explain…
“I thought it would be kind of fun, because doing a voice is challenging, and I’d never done that. Plus, I looked at the script, and it said, “So-and-so and Joel Coen.” And I thought: Christ, well, I love those Coens! They’re funny. So I sorta read a few pages of it and thought, Yeah, I’d like to do that. I had these agents at the time, and I said, “What do they give you to do one of these things?” And they said, “Oh, they give you $50,000.” So I said, “Okay, well, I don’t even leave the fuckin’ driveway for that kind of money.
“Finally, I went out to L.A. to record my lines. And usually when you’re looping a movie, if it takes two days, that’s a lot. I don’t know if I should even tell this story, because it’s kind of mean. [beat] What the hell? It’s interesting. So I worked all day and kept going, “That’s the line? Well, I can’t say that.” And you sit there and go, What can I say that will make this funny? And make it make sense? And I worked. I was exhausted, soaked with sweat, and the lines got worse and worse. And I said, “Okay, you better show me the whole rest of the movie, so we can see what we’re dealing with.” So I sat down and watched the whole thing, and I kept saying, “Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the fuck was Coen thinking?” And then they explained it to me: It wasn’t written by that Joel Coen.”
For me though, it is great, bordering on spectacular news that Murray is keen to work with the Coens. I hope they’re reading…
.png "Blood Simple S")
.png "Barton Fink S")
+2.png "The Hudsucker Proxy S")
.png "Fargo S")
.png "Lebowsky 2 S")
.png "Lebowsky 3 S")
.png "The Man Who Wasn't There S")
.png "No Country For Old Men S")
